ARTILLERY  SCHOOL 


B  FL.A  R.Y 


WILLIAM   FITZHUGH   GORDON 


FRONTISPIECE 


A    VIRGINIAN    OF    THE    OLD     SCHOOL: 
HIS  LIFE,  TIMES  AND  CONTEMPORARIES 

(1787-1858) 


BY 

ARMISTEAD  C.  GORDON 
t 

Author  of  "Robin  Aroon,"  "The  Ivory  Gate,"  etc. 


New  York  and  Washington 

THE  NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
THE  NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


"Let  the  banks  facilitate  the  exchanges  of  commerce  and  further 
the  interests  of  trade;  but  let  them,  I  pray  you,  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  Government." — Gordon's  Speech  on  proposing  the  Inde- 
pendent Treasury  in  1835. 


To 
MASON  GORDON, 

HIMSELF  "A  VIRGINIAN  OF  THE  OLD  SCHOOL," 
THIS  BIOGRAPHY  OF  HIS  FATHER  is  INSCRIBED 

WITH  GRATITUDE  AND  AFFECTION. 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION,    13 

CHAPTER  I,  1 8 

Ancestry. 

CHAPTER  II,    34 

Parents. 

CHAPTER  III,    48 

Early  Life. 

CHAPTER  IV,    64 

"The  Red  Hills  of  Piedmont." 

CHAPTER  V, 76 

In  the  War  of  1812. 

CHAPTER  VI, 89 

In  the  General  Assembly — The  University 
of  Virginia. 

CHAPTER  VII, 107 

In    the    General   Assembly — Some    of    Its 
Members — The  Office  of  Governor. 

CHAPTER  VIII, 122 

In    the    General    Assembly — Politics    and 
Politicians — William  B.  Giles. 

CHAPTER  IX, 140 

In     the     General     Assembly — Lafayette's 
Visit — Jefferson's  Lottery. 

CHAPTER  X, 152 

In  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
Twenty-Nine-Thirty — The  Distinction 
of  Its  Membership. 

CHAPTER  XI, 170 

In  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
Twenty-nine-Thirty — Advocacy  of  the 
White  Basis — Randolph  of  Roanoke. 


io      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

CHAPTER  XII, 182 

Elected  to  Congress — Personnel  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Members — The  Whig  Party — The 
Jefferson  Birthday  Dinner. 

CHAPTER  XIII, 197 

In     Congress — The     Nullifiers — Nullifica- 
tion and  Secession. 

CHAPTER  XIV,   209 

In  Congress — The  Bank  Controversy — 
The  Removal  of  the  Deposits — The  Vir- 
ginia Resolutions. 

CHAPTER  XV,  226 

In  Congress — Originates  the  Independent 
Treasury. 

CHAPTER  XVI,    241 

Gordon's  Speech  in  1835  on  Again  Propos- 
ing the  Independent  Treasury. 

CHAPTER  XVII,    257 

The  Independent  Treasury. 

CHAPTER  XVIII,    266 

Contemporaries   in   Congress — 1829-1835. 

CHAPTER  XIX,     281 

Speeches  and  Debates  in  Congress — The 
Judiciary  Act — The  Bill  to  Remove 
Washington's  Body — Address  to  Con- 
stituents— Tyler's  Letter. 

CHAPTER  XX, 297 

Defeated  for  Congress — Calhoun's  Letter 
on  Jackson's  Dictation  of  a  Successor — 
Barnwell  on  the  Whigs — Tyler  and  the 
Expunging  Resolution. 

CHAPTER  XXI,   309 

Slavery  on  its  Domestic  Side — Nat's  Insur- 
rection— The  Tragedy  at  Germanna. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       n 

CHAPTER  XXII,   319 

The  Slavery  Petitions — Slavery  and  Seces- 
sion— The  Compromise  of  1850. 

CHAPTER  XXIII,    333 

The  Nashville  Convention  of  1850 — The 
Cradle  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

CHAPTER  XXIV, 348 

Manners  and  Customs  of  Congressmen — 
Houston's  Assault  on  Stanbery — The 
Newspapers. 

CHAPTER  XXV,    363 

Returns  to  the  Bar — On  the  Circuit — The 
Albemarle  Lawyers — Letters  on  the  In- 
fluences of  Slavery. 

CHAPTER  XXVI,    373 

Letters  to  His  Wife — Anecdotes — Death. 

CHAPTER  XXVII,   386 

Conclusion. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY,     395 


INTRODUCTION 

In  his  "Life  of  James  Monroe,"  in 'the  "Ameri- 
can Statesmen"  series  of  biographies,  Dr.  Daniel  C. 
Gilman,  in  allusion  to  the  unwritten  story  of  many 
"illustrious  Virginians  whose  memory  it  is  well  to 
revive,"  quotes  St.  George  Tucker's  letter  to  William 
Wirt,  in  which  he  says  "in  a  half-playful,  half-earnest 
tone,  that  Socrates  himself  would  pass  unnoticed 
and  forgotten  in  Virginia,  if  he  were  not  a  public 
character,  and  some  of  his  speeches  preserved  in  a 
newspaper." 

"Who  knows  anything,"  queries  Tucker,  "of 
Peyton  Randolph,  one  of  the  most  popular  men  in 
Virginia?  Who  remembers  Thompson  Mason,  es- 
teemed the  foremost  lawyer  at  the  bar;  or  his  brother 
George  Mason,  of  whom  I  have  heard  Mr.  Madi- 
son say  that  he  possessed  the  greatest  talents  for 
debate  of  any  man  he  had  ever  heard  speak?  What 
is  known  of  Dabney  Carr,  but  that  he  made  the  mo- 
tion for  appointing  committees  of  correspondence  in 
1773?  Virginia  has  produced  few  men  of  finer 
talents,  as  I  have  repeatedly  heard.  I  might  name  a 
number  of  others,  highly  respected  and  influential 
men — yet  how  little  is  known  of  one  half  of  them 
at  the  present  day?" 

Even  those  who  were  public  characters,  and  had 
their  speeches  preserved  in  newspapers,  have  not  all 
escaped  the  corroding  tooth  of  time;  and  there  are 
many  men  named  in  this  volume,  of  whom  no  biog- 
raphy has  yet  been  written,  who  were  well  worthy 
to  adorn  the  annals  of  any  period  of  any  people. 

A  valid  reason  which  may  be  alleged  for  this  neg- 
lect is  that  for  a  long  time,  both  in  the  Colony  and 
the  Commonwealth,  the  ablest  men  in  Virginia  were 
more  interested  in  making  history  than  in  keeping 
a  record  of  it;  and  that  consequently  there  was  as 


14      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

little  consideration  of  preserving  original  sources  as 
of  reducing  them  to  literary  form.  And  so  it  has 
happened,  with  respect  to  the  period  of  which  this 
biography  treats,  that  the  Jeffersonian  view  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  which  flourished  in  Gordon's 
time  as  one  of  its  chief  political  influences,  has  been 
far  less  widely  advertised  or  adequately  presented  in 
written  substance  than  has  been  that  of  the  Hamil- 
tonian  school;  and  the  State-Rights  construction  has 
for  the  later  generations  lost  much  cf  its  prestige  and 
influence  through  its  failure  to  secure  a  more  general 
and  permanent  hearing  from  the  public. 

The  Southern  participants  in  political  affairs  who 
succeeded  the  men  of  the  Revolutionary  epoch,  and 
whose  careers  extended  over  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  were  temporarily  neglected  or 
forgotten  in  the  stress  of  arms  and  in  the  ensuing 
social  cataclysm  which  accompanied  the  War  between 
the  States  in  1861-1865;  and  the  events  of  that  migh- 
ty struggle  served  too  often  to  obscure  even  the  most 
significant  occurrences  which  preceded  and  led  up  to 
it.  In  the  devastation  and  ruin  of  the  South  which 
the  war  left  in  its  wake,  no  small  part  of  the  material 
out  of  which  that  earlier  history  might  have  been 
fashioned,  also  perished;  and  it  has  only  been  in 
recent  years  that  the  serious  gathering  together  of 
such  material  as  was  left  from  the  wreck,  and  its 
painstaking  reduction  into  permanent  form,  have 
had  an  inception  and  awakened  an  interest  among  the 
Southern  people. 

Of  the  subject  of  this  volume,  though  belonging 
to  a  later  generation  than  any  of  the  four  men 
named  by  Tucker  in  his  letter  to  Wirt,  comparatively 
little  is  now  generally  remembered  even  in  the  State 
in  whose  public  affairs  he  filled  for  a  while  no  in- 
considerable space,  and  where  he  was  known  as  one" 
of  the  most  eloquent  popular  orators  of  his  day;  while 
even  the  writers  who  have  undertaken  to  deal  learn- 
edly with  the  great  financial  device  of  the  national 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       15 

Sub-Treasury,  of  which  he  was  the  originator,  make 
mention  of  him  only  in  the  most  cursory  manner. 
Thousands  of  Virginians,  for  whom  the  story  of  Jef- 
ferson's great  nursery  of  intellectual  achievement, 
the  University  of  Virginia,  possesses  an  abiding  in- 
terest, have  little  or  no  knowledge  of  the  persistent 
and  important  part  that  was  played  by  Gordon,  in 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Commonwealth,  in  ac- 
complishing its  final  and  practical  creation,  organi- 
zation, and  location;  while  even  less  known  to  them 
is  the  story  of  his  successful  settlement,  in  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  of  1829-1830,  of  the  basis 
of  representation  which  had  caused  the  convocation 
of  the  convention,  and  whose  adjustment  by  him 
probably  deferred  for  more  than  three  decades  the 
political  separation  of  what  is  now  West  Virginia 
from  the  mother  State.  And  of  the  unnumbered 
throng  that  daily  passes  the  Sub-Treasury  building  in 
Wall  street,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where  the  statue 
of  Washington  marks  the  spot  on  which  Randolph  of 
Roanoke  saw  him  take  the  oath  to  support  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution,  and  saw  too,  "the  poison  under  its 
wings,"  perhaps  not  one  in  a  million  knows  that  the 
Sub-Treasury  of  the  National  Government  emanated 
from  the  brain  of  Gordon  and  was  formulated  by  his 
pen. 

He  was  a  typical  representative  of  the  school  of 
political  thought  that  had  its  origins  in  the  teachings 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  its  apotheosis  in  the  unsuccess- 
ful but  none  the  less  brilliant  and  logical  statesman- 
ship of  John  C.  Calhoun;  and  he  was  the  trusted 
personal  and  political  friend  and  associate  of  each 
of  these  great  Americans.  In  his  generation  the  pub- 
lic career  occupied  and  illustrated  the  ablest  intel- 
lects of  the  South.  Letters  and  science  and  art  and 
the  commercialism  of  money-making  were  all  sub- 
ordinated to  the  study  and  practice  of  government; 
and  amid  the  social  and  political  conditions  which 
prevailed  statesmanship  became  a  second  nature  to 


1 6      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  able,  the  patriotic  and  the  ambitious  Southerners 
who  pursued  it. 

Under  the  contemporary  and  early  posthumous  in- 
fluence of  Mr.  Jefferson,  a  large  part  of  the  political 
life  and  thought  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  permeated  with  his  opinions  and  teach- 
ings; and  Gordon,  who  had  come  early  and  inti- 
mately within  the  sphere  of  that  influence,  continued 
throughout  his  life  a  devout  adherent  of  Jeffersonian 
republicanism.  A  passionate  devotion  to  Virginia  as 
the  Commonwealth,  under  whose  protecting  aegis 
liberty  should  always  find  her  place  of  refuge  and 
home,  was  the  motive  of  his  political  direction  and 
the  guide  of  his  public  career;  while  only  second  to 
this  devotion  to  his  State  was  his  attachment  to  the 
Union  of  confederated  States  according  to  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

To  his  intense  loyalty  to  these  ideals  he  gave  the 
service  of  his  energies  and  talents,  with  little  of  the 
ambition  that  is  most  careful  of  self,  and  with  the 
spirit  of  patriotism  set  high  above  that  of  partisan- 
ship. He  left  his  party  in  the  high  tide  of  its  success 
for  what  he  regarded  the  good  of  his  country;  and 
surrendered  a  career  that  stretched  fair  and  far  be- 
fore him  for  the  sake  of  political  principle. 

The  delineation  of  him  that  has  been  attempted 
here  has  contemplated  also  some  depiction  of  the 
atmosphere  in  which  he  moved,  and  the  environment 
which  surrounded  him.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
larger  part  of  his  correspondence  was  destroyed  by 
an  accident  in  the  time  of  the  War  between  the 
States.  Except  his  letters  to  his  wife,  many  of  which 
however,  are  fortunately  more  or  less  political  in  a 
narrative  and  descriptive  way,  little  of  an  epistolary 
character,  either  written  to  him  or  from  his  hand, 
survives.  Yet  enough  remains  in  the  letters  from 
Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Calhoun,  President  Tyler  and 
others,  here  reproduced,  and  in  most  instances  for 
the  first  time  published,  to  indicate  a  measure  of  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       17 

esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  many  of  the  wise 
and  virtuous  spirits  of  his  age. 

In  the  attempted  picture  of  any  public  man's 
career  the  background  must  necessarily  hold  more  or 
less  of  the  contemporary  movement  of  the  period. 
The  account  here  sought  to  be  given  of  Gordon's 
times  does  not  purport,  however,  to  contain  more 
than  some  detail  of  the  events  with  which  he  was 
most  closely  associated,  or  which  bulked  so  large  as 
to  compel  observance  of  them.  His  adult  life,  ex- 
tending as  it  did  from  Jefferson's  second  administra- 
tion to  that  of  Buchanan,  covered  a  space  that  was 
crowded  thick  with  historic  happenings;  and  for  a 
narrative  of  even  the  fewest  of  these  there  is  but 
little  room  here. 

So,  too,  of  the  men  of  his  day  mention  has  only 
been  made  of  those  of  his  own  vicinage,  or  of  his 
personal  and  political  acquaintance  and  fellowship. 
If  these  shall  seem  unduly  to  throng  the  canvas,  it 
may  be  pleaded  in  extenuation  that  the  masters  of 
history  have  set  an  example  in  illuminating  their 
pages  with  the  portrayal  of  contemporary  figures  of 
distinction;  and  that  even  in  the  limited  space  per- 
mitted to  those  here  mentioned  some  memories 
worthy  of  preservation  may  be  revived  which  have 
already  grown  faded,  or  become  in  degree  forgotten ; 
or  some  strong  figure,  well-known  and  yet  remem- 
bered, may  stand  forth  again  in  renewed,  if  brief, 
distinctness. 


CHAPTER  I 

ANCESTRY 

From  the  time  of  the  Cromwellian  settlement  of 
Ireland,  when  "the  baronies  were  assigned  in  Con- 
naught  for  the  new  settlements  of  the  ancient  no- 
bility, gentry  and  farmers  of  the  Irish  nation,  cor- 
responding in  character  to  their  old  habitations  in  the 
three  other  provinces  from  whence  they  were  trans- 
planted," down  to  the  present  day,  Ulster,  the  north- 
ernmost and  nearest  to  Scotland  of  these  three  prov- 
inces, has  been  essentially  Scotch.  Separated  from 
the  Galloway  county  of  Wigtonshire  by  a  stretch  of 
water  only  thirty  miles  wide,  for  the  distance  is  no 
more  than  that  by  steamer  to-day  from  Larne  to  Port- 
patrick,  Ulster  afforded  an  inviting  field  of  enter- 
prise to  the  venturous  and  canny  inhabitants  of  Cale- 
donia; who,  as  soon  as  they  discovered  room  and 
opportunity,  poured  into  northern  Ireland  in  a  steady 
stream  of  such  numbers,  that  Scottish  names  are  as 
frequent  now  throughout  the  whole  province  as  in 
the  country  of  their  origin;  while  the  cold  religion 
of  Knox  has  thenceforward  so  continued  to  flourish 
there  as  to  cause  those  of  a  different  faith  elsewhere 
in  Ireland,  where  politics  and  religion  go  hand  in 
hand,  to  speak  of  the  region  as  ''Black  Ulster."  But 
under  the  thrifty  and  self-contained  influences  of  the 
Scotchmen,  prosperity  has  accompanied  the  Scotch 
blood  and  the  Scotch  burr  in  their  adopted  home; 
and  no  one  of  the  Ulster  counties  has  proven  more 
fertile,  more  thrifty  and  more  fortunate  than  the 
County  Down,  which  is  the  most  eastern  county  of 
Ireland  lying  upon  the  Irish  Sea.  Its  most  considera- 
ble place  is  the  ancient  town  of  Newry,  seated  on  the 
Narrow  Water,  at  the  head  of  Carlingford  Loch, 
and  almost  surrounded  by  mountains  and  rocky  hills, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       19 

except  to  the  north  and  northwest,  where  a  prospect 
opens  into  a  good  country,  through  which  the  canal 
is  carried  that  runs  to  Lough  Neagh,  famed  in 
Moore's  song  as  holding  beneath  its  waters  the 
"Round  Towers  of  other  days."  In  1689  the  Duke 
of  Berwick  burned  the  town  of  Newry  to  secure 
his  retreat  to  Dundalk  from  the  English  under 
Schomberg.  "It  has  been  greatly  improved  since  the 
settlement  in  1691,"  says  its  ingenuous  chronicler, 
"and  is  now  one  of  the  largest  and  most  commercial 
towns  in  the  country." 

In  1175  a  Cistercian  Abbey  was  founded  at  Newry 
by  Maurice  McLaughlin,  King  of  all  Ireland,  which 
possessed  extensive  endowments  and  privileges,  and 
large  areas  of  adjacent  land.  In  1543  the  Abbey 
was  converted  into  a  collegiate  church  for  secular 
priests,  and  was  finally  dissolved  by  King  Edward 
VI  of  England,  who  granted  it  and  its  possessions  to 
Sir  Nicholas  Bagenal,  Marshal  of  Ireland.  Sir 
Nicholas  made  the  Abbey  his  private  residence,  and 
under  his  auspices  Newry  entered  upon  its  career  of 
growth  and  prosperity.  The  Bagenal  family  con- 
tinued to  possess  some  portions  at  least  of  the  Abbey 
properties  down  to  the  period  of  the  Revolution  of 
1688;  for  in  the  "Charter  Abbatiae,"  of  the  old 
Cistercians  of  St.  Benedict,  which  was  granted  them 
by  the  Irish  King  Maurice,  we  find  included,  among 
other  lands  and  territories  conferred  upon  the  Abbey, 
"the  land  of  Enacratha,"  which  is  now  Carnmeen, 
"with  its  woods  and  waters,"  and  "the  land  of  Lis- 
dorca,"  now  Lisduff;  and  in  1692  the  public  records 
show  portions  of  the  townlands  of  Carnmeen  and 
Lisduff,  situated  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Sheepbridge, 
about  three  miles  north  of  the  town  of  Newry,  to 
have  been  the  property  of  Nicholas  Bagenal,  es- 
quire, namesake  and  descendant  of  the  marshal. 

On  the  28th  of  November,  1692,  James  Gordon, 
"of  Sheepbridge  in  the  Barony  of  Newry,  gentle- 
man," as  he  is  described  in  the  old  conveyances,  was 


20      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

granted  a  lease  held  in  fee  farm  of  the  half  town- 
land  of  Cloughenramer  and  the  half  town-land  of 
Derraboy  by  this  Nicholas  Bagenal,  esquire;  and  on 
the  22d  of  March,  1731,  the  lease,  which  was  in 
effect  a  fee  simple  tenure,  subject  to  an  annuity,  was 
confirmed  to  the  three  sons  of  James  Gordon,  with 
the  addition  of  the  half  town-land  of  Lisduff  and  the 
quarter  town-land  of  Carnmeen,  including  an  almost 
baronial  tract,  which  comprised  what  was  thence- 
forth known  as  the  Sheepbridge  estates.  This  prop- 
erty, which  continued  to  remain  in  the  possession  of 
the  Gordon  family,  though  with  steady  diminutions 
from  generation  to  generation,  due  to  the  hospitality, 
the  free-living  and  the  sporting  proclivities  of  its 
successive  owners,  until  the  mansion  house  and  a 
remnant  of  something  more  than  one  hundred  acres 
were  left,  was  ^old  in  1902,  the  last  male  Gordon 
owner  of  Sheepbridge  having  died  as  a  youth  of  nine- 
teen years,  in  1891. 

A  careful  examination  of  all  the  documentary  evi- 
dence, in  the  shape  of  public  records  and  contem- 
poraneous writings  that  have  proven  accessible,  tend 
to  show  that  the  first  James  Gordon  of  Sheepbridge, 
was  a  son  of  the  Reverend  James  Gordon,  of  Com- 
ber, also  a  town  in  county  Down.  This  reverend 
gentleman  was  a  Scotch  chaplain  in  the  regiment  of 
Lord  Montgomery,  a  constituent  part  of  Crom- 
well's invading  army,  and  seems  to  have  been 
under  the  especial  patronage  of  Lady  Montgomery, 
who  was  "the  daughter  of  an  Alexander  of  Aber- 
deenshire,  Scotland,  and  a  rigid  Presbyterian."  This 
lady  is  said  to  have  been  a  personage  of  high  social 
importance  and  distinction  in  her  day;  and  became, 
after  the  Cromwellian  invasion,  the  Viscountess 
Mount  Alexander.  After  her  husband's  death  she 
married  the  famous  Scotch  General,  Robert  Munro. 

In  the  Commissary  records  of  the  town  of  Elgin, 
in  Morayshire,  Scotland,  we  find  that  in  1649  tnis 
"Mr.  James  Gordoune,  minister  at  Comber,  in  Ire- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       21 

land,  sone  lauchfull  to  umquhile  Alexander  Gordoune 
of  Satterhill,"  executed  a  certain  instrument  of  gift  to 
his  brother,  "Alexander  Gordoune,"  and  "umquhile 
Alexander,"  the  father,  is  indicated  by  the  records 
to  have  descended  from  one  of  the  most  ancient  of 
the  Gordon  families  of  the  north  of  Scotland. 

The  grandsons  of  the  first  James  Gordon  of  Vir- 
ginia, brought  with  them  to  the  Colony,  in  1738,  the 
crest  of  the  Lesmoir  Gordons,  described  in  heraldic 
phrase  as  "a  hart's  head  proper,"  and  their  motto 
"Bydand,"  engraven  on  some  pieces  of  silver  plate; 
but  neither  for  pedigree  nor  crest  did  their  demo- 
cratic descendant,  whose  life  is  sought  to  be  depicted 
in  these  pages,  care  anything.  He  was  a  disciple 
and  friend  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  growing  up  in 
the  aftermath  of  democratic  revolutions,  eschewed 
the  assumptions  of  aristocracy.  He  was  satisfied 
to  think  and  to  say  that  it  "took  three  generations 
to  make  a  gentleman,"  and  that  he  was  assured  of 
his  right  to  the  title,  and  looked  no  further. 

James  Gordon  the  first,  of  Sheepbridge,  in  the 
barony  of  Newry,  whose  will  is  dated  July  7,  1707, 
married  Jane  Campbell,  a  merchant  of  Newry,  by 
his  wife,  Jane  Wallace,  of  Ravarra,  near  Belfast, 
of  the  ancient  house  of  Wallace  of  Elderslie.  It  was 
the  custom  of  the  Scotch  in  Ulster  to  intermarry 
among  themselves;  and  only  in  most  exceptional  in- 
stances do  we  find  this  custom  violated  by  marriage 
with  the  native  Irish.  This  persistent  tendency  has 
been  the  chief  factor  in  preserving  their  racial  in- 
tegrity in  their  local  environment.  Jane  Wallace, 
the  mother  of  Gordon's  wife,  was  a  character  of 
celebrity  in  the  history  of  the  town  of  Newry.  In 
1689,  when  the  town  was  burned  by  King  James' 
army,  she  fled  with  her  younger  children  to  the  Isle  of 
Man,  whose  outlines,  and  those  of  the  farther  hills 
of  England,  are  visible  on  a  clear  day  from  the 
Mourne  mountains  near  Newry.  As  soon  as  King 
William  restored  peace  to  Ulster,  she  returned  and 


22      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

re-established  her  family  in  their  former  home, 
"having,"  as  her  family  chronicler  naively  relates,  "a 
strength  of  mind  superior  to  difficulties."  Besides 
her  daughter  Jane,  who  married  James  Gordon,  she 
had  a  number  of  children,  whose  families  became 
so  important  and  influential  in  the  vicinage  that  they 
were  locally  known  as  "The  Grand  Alliance."  Mrs. 
Campbell  lived  to  a  green  old  age;  and  it  is  further 
chronicled  concerning  her  that  she  "had  great  au- 
thority and  commanded  great  respect."  She  sur- 
vived the  death  of  her  husband  forty-three  years,  and, 
surrounded  by  a  great  number  of  descendants,  "saw 
the  fifth  generation,  a  child  brought  from  Scotland 
to  be  presented  to  her  with  much  filial  respect." 

James  Gordon  the  first,  of  Sheepbridge,  and  his 
wife,  Jane  Campbell,  had  issue  three  sons,  James, 
Robert  and  George.  James  inherited  the  Sheep- 
bridge  estates,  and  married  Sarah  Greenway,  the 
daughter  of  a  prominent  merchant  of  Newry;  and 
of  their  marriage  were  born  four  sons  and  three 
daughters.  Two  of  these  sons,  the  first  and  third, 
who  were  James  and  John,  emigrated  to  Virginia  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  were 
respectively  the  maternal  and  paternal  grandfathers 
of  William  Fitzhugh  Gordon,  his  father  having  been 
the  son  of  John  Gordon,  and  his  mother  the  daughter 
of  the  elder  emigrant,  James. 

The  second  son,  Samuel  Gordon,  under  his  father's 
will,  and  by  subsequent  purchase  from  his  brothers 
in  Virginia,  became  the  owner  of  the  larger  portion 
of  the  Sheepbridge  lands,  and  of  the  mansion-house, 
an  imposing  stuccoed  edifice  of  three  stories,  sit- 
uated on  a  hill  on  the  road  leading  northward  to 
Rathfriland,  which  was  built  by  the  first  James.  The 
fourth  brother,  George,  likewise  came  to  Virginia, 
where  he  resided  for  a  brief  period,  and  returned  to 
Ireland.  Of  his  descendants  are  the  present  Gor- 
dons of  Maryvale,  near  Newry,  who  are  a  prominent 
family  in  the  County  Down. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       23 

In  the  Sheepbridge  descent  were  several  men  of 
the  name  who  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  Irish 
Rebellion  of  1798,  and  in  what  was  known  as  the 
"Volunteer  Movement,"  preceding  it.  One  of  these 
was  John  Gordon  of  Templegowran,  eldest  son  of 
Samuel  of  Sheepbridge,  of  whose  rescue  from  prison 
by  his  wife,  after  his  arrest  and  transportation  to 
Belfast  by  the  English  soldiery,  a  romantic  story 
is  told  in  the  local  chronicles.  This  John  of  Tem- 
plegowran was  of  patriotic  spirit,  for  we  find  him 
again,  though  a  zealous  Presbyterian  and  church- 
builder,  espousing  the  movement  in  April,  1812,  in 
favor  of  Catholic  Emancipation. 

Another  of  the  family,  who  took  part  in  the  "Vol- 
unteer Movement,"  and  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  was 
Captain  William  Gordon,  of  Sheepbridge,  younger 
brother  of  John,  of  Templegowran,  who  is  said  by 
Macnevin,  in  his  "History  of  the  Volunteer  Move- 
ment of  1782  in  Ireland,"  to  have  raised  and 
equipped  at  his  own  expense  a  company,  known  as 
"The  Sheepbridge  Volunteers,"  for  service  in  the 
Rebellion. 

Colonel  James  Gordon,  the  eldest  son  of  James 
Gordon,  the  second,  of  Sheepbridge,  and  his  wife, 
Sarah  Greenway,  was  born  at  Sheepbridge  in  1714. 
Before  1738  he  emigrated  to  Virginia  and  settled  in 
Lancaster  county,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Rappa- 
hannock  River,  in  what  is  known  as  the  Northern 
Neck.  Here,  at  Merry  Point,  on  the  Corotoman 
River  he  built  his  mansion-house,  which  is  still  stand- 
ing, and  engaged  in  the  exportation  of  tobacco  from 
Virginia  to  Whitehaven  in  England.  He  amassed 
a  fortune  in  the  tobacco  trade,  and  was  a  personage 
of  importance  and  influence  in  his  county;  and  in 
spite  of  his  Presbyterianism,  a  member  of  the  parish 
vestry,  which  under  the  union  of  church  and  state, 
constituted  the  local  political  governing  body.  He 
is  represented  as  a  man  of  great  personal  piety  by 
Foote,  in  his  "Sketches  of  Virginia,"  and  it  is  certain 


24      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

that  he  was  one  of  the  founders  and  chief  supporters 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  a  section  of  country 
dominated  by  the  established  Church  of  England. 
Yet  for  all  his  devoutness  he  was  an  owner  of  slaves, 
a  number  of  whom  he  bought  from  slave-ships  com- 
ing into  the  Rappahannock;  he  operated  a  distillery 
on  one  of  his  plantations  and  manufactured  ardent 
spirits;  and  he  conducted  a  lottery  for  the  benefit  of 
a  Presbyterian  meeting-house,  which  was  built  chiefly 
through  his  efforts.  All  these  things  he  tells  of  in 
a  "Journal"  which  he  kept  for  many  years,  in  which 
he  recorded  not  only  his  business  transactions  but 
all  the  local  happenings,  including  an  occasional 
serious  matter  of  neighborhood  scandal;  and  in  it  he 
also  kept  a  record,  which  was  a  voluminous  one,  of 
the  persons  who  visited  at  his  house.  This  journal 
affords  a  pleasing  insight  into  the  daily  domestic  life 
of  a  colonial  merchant  and  planter  of  the  period; 
and  is  full  of  entertaining  incidents  of  the  visitors 
who  thronged  his  hospitable  home.  Whitefield,  the 
great  English  evangelist,  came  on  one  occasion,  and 
was  received  with  enthusiasm  and  a  lavish  welcome; 
and  when  he  departed  "to  the  Northward,"  in  the 
quaint  phraseology  of  the  journal,  took  with  him 
as  the  gift  of  his  generous  host  a  new  chaise  and  a 
pair  of  handsome  horses. 

Colonel  James  Gordon  died  at  his  house  in  Lan- 
caster, in  1758,  leaving  behind  him,  in  his  obituary 
in  the  Virginia  Gazette,  of  January  14,  1768,  the 
story  of  having  been  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
and  admirable  men  of  his  times.  He  married  first, 
on  March  28,.  1742,  Milicent  Conway,  youngest 
daughter  of  Colonel  Edwin  Conway,  of  Lancaster, 
whose  first  wife  was  Ann  Ball,  half-sister  of  the 
mother  of  Washington.  Gordon's  second  wife, 
whom  he  married  on  November  12,  1748,  was  Mary 
Harrison,  youngest  daughter  of  Colonel  Nathaniel 
Harrison,  of  Wakefield,  Surry  county,  a  younger 
brother  of  that  Benjamin  Harrison,  of  Berkeley,  on 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       25 

James  River,  whose  grandson,  Benjamin,  was  a  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  father  of 
General  William  Henry  Harrison,  President  of  the 
United  States. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Colonel  Nathaniel 
Harrison,  of  Wakefield,  was  the  first  Harrison 
owner  of  Brandon,  the  famous  colonial  mansion  on 
James  River,  of  which  Tyler  in  "The  Cradle  of  the 
Republic,"  says:  "Brandon  and  Merchant's  Hope, 
or  Powell  Brook,  became  the  joint  property  of 
Richard  Quiney  and  his  brother-in-law,  John  Sadler. 
The  Quineys  were  from  Stratford  on  Avon.  Thomas 
Quiney  married  Judith,  the  daughter  of  William 
Shakespeare.  Richard  Quiney's  wife,  Ellen  Sadler, 
daughter  of  John  Sadler,  was  aunt  of  Ann  Sadler, 
the  wife  of  John  Harvard,  founder  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege. Richard  Quiney's  moiety  in  Brandon  as  well 
as  in  Powell  Brook,  descended  to  his  son  Thomas, 
who  in  his  will  left  the  same  to  his  great-nephew, 
Robert  Richardson;  and  he  in  1720  conveyed  the 
same  to  Nathaniel  Harrison,  to  whom  the  other 
moiety  doubtless  had,  not  long  before,  passed  from 
the  Sadlers." 

The  issue  of  the  marriage  of  Colonel  James  Gor- 
don and  his  wife  Mary  Harrison  were  four  sons  and 
five  daughters,  whose  descendants  are  to  be  found  in 
many  states  of  the  American  Union,  the  men  of 
whom  in  all  the  generations  have  upborne  the  sol- 
dierly qualities  of  their  Cromwellian  progenitor,  and 
frequently,  though  not  so  persistently,  the  religious 
characteristics  which  are  supposed  to  belong  to  a 
puritan  chaplain. 

The  eldest  daughter  of  Colonel  Gordon's  second 
marriage  became  at  the  early  age  of  thirteen  years 
the  wife  of  the  Reverend  James  Waddell,  whose 
parents  emigrated  to  Pennsylvania  from  the  County 
Down,  and  who  was  born  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
during  their  voyage  over.  The  imaginative  sailors 
dubbed  him  "the  child  of  the  ship  and  star;"  and 


26      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

he  became  in  time  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  dis- 
tinguished ministers  of  his  generation  in  America. 
William  Wirt,  in  the  "British  Spy,"  gives  a  graphic 
account  of  his  physical  appearance,  and  of  his  won- 
derful gift  of  speech — an  account  which  superseded 
the  sailor's  appellation  with  the  more  famous  one  of 
"the  Blind  Preacher."  In  his  old  age  Mr.  Waddell 
lived  in  Louisa  County;  and  his  wife's  nephew,  Wil- 
liam Fitzhugh  Gordon,  resided  temporarily  in  his 
family  when  a  lad,  and  went  to  school  to  his  son, 
James  Gordon  Waddell.  His  association  with  "the 
Blind  Preacher"  made  a  lasting  impression  upon 
Gordon's  plastic  mind;  and  he  was  fond  of  nar- 
rating how  the  old  gentleman  would  say  to  him, 
"William,  popularity  is  a  phantom  that  flees  as  you 
pursue  it, — let  it  follow  you" ;  or  express  to  him  the 
wish  that  when  his  time  came  to  depart,  he  might 
"steal  away  from  earth." 

Another  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  her  first 
cousin,  James  Gordon,  of  Orange,  or  James  Gordon, 
junior,  as  he  was  indifferently  called,  who  was  the 
oldest  son  of  the  immigrant,  John  Gordon,  of  Sheep- 
bridge;  and  the  second  son  of  this  marriage  was 
William  Fitzhugh  Gordon. 

Colonel  James  Gordon,  of  Lancaster,  left  a  will, 
which  was  proved  February  18,  1768;  in  which  he 
made  disposition  of  a  large  estate,  consisting  of 
lands,  negro  slaves  and  personal  property.  Nothing 
however,  which  remained  of  his  possessions  is  now 
as  interesting  as  his  "Journal,"  the  portion  of  which 
that  survives,  covering  a  period  of  five  or  six  years, 
has  been  published  in  "The  William  and  Mary  Col- 
lege Quarterly,"  and  furnishes  very  entertaining 
reading.  Among  its  various  items  is  one  reciting 
that  on  a  day  named,  the  ship  Friendship,  out  of 
Whitehaven,  was  anchored  in  the  river  near  his 
house.  The  date  and  the  name  of  the  vessel  indicate 
that  upon  it  at  that  time,  in  the  capacity  of  cabin  boy, 
or  occupying  some  other  insignificant  subordinate 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       27 

position,  was  the  lad  John  Paul,  son  of  the  Kirkcud- 
brightshire gardener,  who  later  became  Commodore 
John  Paul  Jones  of  the  American  Navy,  and  burnt 
the  town  of  Whitehaven,  out  of  which  the  Friend- 
ship sailed. 

About  1750,  John  Hesselius,  a  distinguished  por- 
trait painter  of  his  day,  visited  Lancaster,  and 
painted  the  portraits  of  James  Gordon  and  his 
brother  John.  Both  pictures  are  delineated  in  the 
ornate  costume- of  the  period,  belaced  and  bewigged. 
Colonel  James  Gordon  appears  as  a  florid  and  some- 
what corpulent  personage,  wearing  a  flaxen  periwig  of 
flowing  curls;  while  his  brother  John,  of  a  more 
bilious  tinge  of  complexion,  is  represented  as  a  young 
gentleman  of  fashion,  with  a  black  peruke  of  cava- 
lier-like locks,  and  is  armed  with  a  great  walking- 
staff. 

Of  John  Gordon,  the  younger  of  the  two  brothers, 
who  came  to  Virginia,  much  less  is  known  than  of  his 
brother  James.  He  was  probably  not  so  systematic, 
for  we  find  Colonel  James  forgiving  him  a  consider- 
able debt  in  his  will;  and  it  is  pretty  certain  that  he 
was  by  no  means  so  religious,  or  if  so  his  piety  must 
have  been  very  strongly  militant.  For  his  elder 
brother  records  in  the  "Journal"  an  account  of  a 
visit  paid  by  him  to  his  brother  John  at  Urbanna,  in 
Middlesex  County,  across  the  river,  where  he  then 
lived,  on  the  occasion  of  which  he  found  him  suffer- 
ing from  a  wound  in  his  head,  encountered  in  a  fight. 
Mr.  Philip  Vickers  Fithian,  a  Jersey  youth  then 
teaching  in  the  family  of  Councillor  Robert  Carter, 
of  Nomini  Hall,  in  Westmoreland,  who  was  first 
cousin  of  John  Gordon's  wife,  Lucy  Churchill,  adds 
in  his  "Diary"  under  date  of  November  30,  1773, 
the  no  less  convincing  statement, — unless  indeed 
horse-racing  was  as  consistent  with  religion  at  that 
time  as  brandy-making  and  lotteries  seemed  to  be, — 
that  he  had  been  solicited  "at  the  Race"  by  Mr.  Gor- 
don "to  take  and  instruct  two  of  his  sons." 


28       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

John,  however,  in  spite  of  these  possible  failings, 
possessed  also  the  Scotch  thrift  and  canniness  of  his 
eldest  brother,  and  accumulated  enough  gear  to  serve 
sufficiently  his  needs  in  life.  The  date  of  his  birth  at 
Sheepbridge  is  not  known,  he  not  having  taken  the 
precaution  to  record  it  in  a  family  Bible,  as  did  his 
brother  James  in  his  own  case.  But  he  was  probably 
five  or  six  years  younger  than  Colonel  James.  He 
was  in  Virginia  prior  to  1756;  and  settled  at  Ur- 
banna,  then  a  port  of  entry,  where  his  mansion-house 
and  brick  store-house,  in  which  he  housed  his  export 
tobacco,  were  still  standing  a  few  years  ago.  He 
was  a  merchant  there,  and  a  planter  in  Middlesex 
County,  as  was  his  brother  across  the  river  in  Lan- 
caster. He  owned  several  important  tracts  of  land 
in  Middlesex,  and  engaged  extensively  in  the  tobacco 
trade  with  England.  In  1762  he  sold  his  estates  in 
Middlesex  County,  and  moved  to  Richmond  County, 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Rappahannock,  where  he 
continued  to  reside  until  his  death.  The  exact  date 
of  this  occurrence  is  as  obscure  as  that  of  his  birth. 
He  was  living  September  17,  1779,  the  date  of  his 
conveyance  of  his  interest  in  the  Sheepbridge  estate 
in  Ireland  to  his  nephew,  George  Gordon;  and  he 
was  dead  before  the  6th  day  of  November,  1780, 
when  it  appears  that  at  a  county  court  held  for  Rich- 
mond County,  his  son  James  Gordon,  junior,  quali- 
fied as  his  administrator.  There  remains  no  other 
record  of  his  personality  or  of  his  domestic  life;  but 
he  appears  to  have  been  an  individual  of  influence 
and  property  in  both  counties  of  Middlesex  and  Rich- 
mond; and  in  the  latter  he  was  a  member  of  the 
county  bench  of  magistrates,  a  position  of  con- 
spicuous local  honor  and  dignity  under  the  colonial 
court  system. 

John  Gordon  married  on  December  15,  1756, 
Lucy  Churchill,  daughter  of  Colonel  Armistead 
Churchill,  of  Bushy  Park,  in  Middlesex  County,  and 
his  wife,  Hannah  Harrison,  who  was  a  daughter  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       29 

Nathaniel  Harrison,  of  Wakefield,  and  an  elder 
sister  of  Colonel  James  Gordon's  second  wife. 
There  were  no  better  families  in  the  Colony,  where 
birth  and  breeding  counted  for  much,  than  these 
of  the  river-barons  into  which  the  two -young  Gor- 
dons entered  by  virtue  of  their  matrimonial  alliances ; 
and  it  is  said,  on  contemporary  authority,  that  no 
handsomer  couple  ever  walked  down  the  aisle  of 
Wicomico  Church  than  John  Gordon  and  his  bride 
on  the  December  day  of  their  wedding.  Lucy 
Churchill's  father,  Colonel  Armistead  Churchill,  was 
the  only  son,  by  her  second  marriage,  of  Elizabeth 
Armistead,  daughter  of  John  Armistead,  of  "Hesse," 
the  councillor.  Her  first  husband  had  been  Ralph 
Wormeley,  of  "Rosegill"  in  Middlesex,  who  was  sec- 
retary of  the  Colony,  and  of  that  union  were  born  a 
son,  John  Wormeley,  who  was  father  of  Ralph,  of 
the  Council,  and  grandfather  of  Admiral  Ralph 
Randolph  Wormeley  of  the  British  Navy.  Of  this 
descent,  also,  were  the  writers,  Miss  Katherine  Pres- 
cott  Wormeley  and  her  sister  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Wormeley  Latimer.  From  the  marriage  of  Eliza- 
beth Armistead  and  Ralph  Wormeley,  the  secretary, 
came  a  daughter,  who  was  the  first  wife  of  Mann 
Page;  and  his  daughter,  by  her,  married  William 
Randolph,  of  Tuckahoe.  An  aunt  of  Colonel 
Armistead  Churchill's  on  the  maternal  side  was 
Judith  Armistead,  wife  of  "King"  Carter,  of  whom 
Moncure  D.  Conway  has  written  in  "Barons 
of  Potowmack  and  Rappahannock/'  Colonel 
Churchill's  sister,  Priscilla,  married  "King"  Carter's 
son  of  a  second  marriage,  Robert  of  Nomini  Hall; 
and  this  Robert's  fame  has  come  down  to  us,  in  and 
out  of  the  pages  of  Fithian's  gossiping  "Diary,"  as 
that  not  only  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  colonial  land- 
owners, but  of  a  musical  virtuoso,  accomplished  man 
of  the  world,  and  polished  and  cultivated  scholar. 

Upon  the  death  of  Secretary  Wormeley  his  hand- 
some  and   wealthy   widow,    residing   in   her   dower 


30      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

demesne  of  "Rosegill,"  was  "wooed  and  married 
and  a'  "  by  William  Churchill,  a  young  Englishman, 
who  had  well-seated  himself  in  the  Colony,  coming 
out  of  North  Aston  in  Oxfordshire,  where  the 
Churchills  had  long  flourished.  William  Churchill 
was  clerk  of  the  county,  an  honorable  and  much 
coveted  office  both  for  the  sake  of  its  dignity  and 
influence  and  for  its  valuable  emoluments  and  per- 
quisites; and  later  he  became  a  member  of  the  coun- 
cil. After  his  marriage  to  "Madam  Wormeley,"  as 
she  was  called  in  her  vicinage,  he  resided  at  Rosegill, 
an  ancient  colonial  mansion  situated  near  Urbanna 
on  a  lofty  eminence  overlooking  the  Rappahannock 
River,  that  had  been  even  then  the  seat  or  a  refined 
and  elegant  hospitality  for  half  a  century;  that  had 
sheltered  a  royal  governor;  and  had  given  welcome 
to  King  Charles's  emissaries  from  beyond  seas,  when 
Virginia  alone  of  all  his  dominions  remained  loyal. 
Bruce,  in  his  "Social  Life  of  Virginia  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century,"  has  pictured  Rosegill  as  "con- 
taining a  large  withdrawing  room,  in  addition  to 
numerous  sleeping-chambers.  There  was  perhaps  no 
other  residence  in  Virginia  more  admirably  appointed 
for  the  entertainment  of  guests.  It  was  situated 
directly  on  the  banks  of  the  Rappahannock  River,  in 
one  of  its  widest  and  noblest  reaches,  which  thus 
afforded  extraordinary  facilities  for  boating  and  sail- 
ing. The  library  was,  perhaps,  the  choicest  and 
largest  in  the  Colony,  while  the  house  itself  was  un- 
usually spacious." 

Here  Armistead  Churchill  was  born;  and  here  he 
lived  until  he  established  himself  in  his  own  house  of 
"Bushy  Park,"  farther  down  the  river,  from  which 
his  daughter,  Lucy  Churchill,  married  John  Gordon. 

It  was  significant  of  the  personal  charm  and  at- 
traction of  the  two  young  Gordons  that  they  should 
have  thus  entered  an  "Alliance"  in  Virginia  which 
far  exceeded  in  wealth  and  power  and  importance  that 
which  their  ancestor,  Jane  Campbell,  had  established 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON        3 1 

at  Newry;  for  these  Armisteads  and  Harrisons  and 
Carters  and  Churchills  and  Conways  and  Wormeleys 
represented  whatever  was  best  in  the  social  and 
political  life  of  the  Colony.  The  river-barons  of 
that  day  were  what  would  be  now  denominated  "a 
close  corporation."  They  intermarried  with  each 
other,  and  they  stood  by  each  other,  socially  and 
politically.  Thus,  these  Virginia  relatives  of  the 
Gordons  were  of  such  a  like  singular  interweaving  by 
consanguinity  and  affinity  with  the  Burwells  and  the 
Bassetts  and  the  Berkeleys — other  river  barons, — 
as  had  led  Governor  Spotswood  at  an  earlier  day  to 
complain  that  the  King's  Council  in  Virginia  con- 
tained too  many  of  one  family:  "He  says,"  observes 
Keith,  in  his  "Ancestry  of  Benjamin  Harrison,"  "in 
one  of  his  published  Letters,  that  six  out  of  the  ten 
members  were  related  to  Ludwell,  who  as  has  been 
shown  above  was  step-uncle  of  the  Burwells;  and 
on  March  9,  1713,  probably  having  in  mind  some 
persons  like  Nathaniel  Harrison,  whose  brother  had 
married  a  Burwell,  declares :  'The  greater  part  of 
the  present  council  are  related  to  the  Family  of  the 
Burwells  *  *  *  If  Mr.  Bassett  and  Mr. 
Berkeley  should  take  their  places,  there  will  be  no 
less  than  seven  so  near  related  that  they  will  go  off 
the  Bench,  whenever  a  Cause  of  the  Burwells  come 
to  be  tryed.'  ' 

At  this  period  there  had  grown  up  in  the  river- 
valleys  of  Virginia,  where  the  lands  were  fertile  and 
the  means  of  travel  and  communication  by  water 
easy,  a  wealthy  and  prosperous  class  of  planters, 
whose  seats  of  wealth  and  luxury  were  made  possible 
by  the  existence  of  negro  slavery,  and  by  the  tre- 
mendous development  of  the  tobacco  trade  with  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  The  riches  and  power  of  these 
people  were  more  than  baronial;  and  are  illustrated 
in  the  histories  of  their  families.  They  constituted 
a  social  and  political  society  in  the  Province  that  was 
as  preeminent  as  it  was  exclusive. 


32       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

In  his  "Bristol  Parish"  Dr.  Slaughter  gives  a  vivid 
account  of  the  Virginia  tobacco  trade,  which  most 
began  to  flourish  in  the  early  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  was  carried  on  by  the  colonial  planters 
and  merchants  with  London  and  Whitehaven  and 
Glasgow. 

"It  was  the  tobacco  trade,"  writes  Dr.  Slaughter, 
"which  gave  such  impulse  to  Blandford;  and  Vir- 
ginia's chief  market  was  Glasgow,  so  soon  as  the 
American  trade  was  thrown  open  to  Scotland  by  her 
union  with  England  (1707).  From  this  era  dates 
the  prosperity  of  Glasgow  itself.  Up  to  the  middle 
of  the  last  (i8th)  century  the  foreign  trade  of  Glas- 
go  was  conducted  by  joint-stock  companies.  A 
Glasgow  vessel  of  sixty  tons  first  crossed  the  Atlantic 
in  1718.  The  first  adventure  to  Virginia,  (says 
Dugald  Valentine's  Diary),  was  under  the  sole 
charge  of  the  captain  acting  as  supercargo.  When 
he  was  asked  on  his  return  for  a  statement  of  his 
accounts,  he  replied  that  he  had  no  statement;  but 
here  were  the  proceeds,  throwing  upon  the  table  a 
large  hoggar  (stocking)  stuffed  to  the  top  with  coin. 
As  an  unlettered  man  had  been  so  successful,  they 
thought  a  trained  accountant  would  do  better;  and 
so  they  sent  one;  and  he  came  back  with  a  beautiful 
statement,  but  no  hoggar. 

"The  trade  so  increased  that  about  1735  the 
Scotch  merchants  sent  factors  to  live  in  Virginia  and 
buy  tobacco  to  the  best  advantage.  Hence  Scotch 
merchants  poured  into  Dumfries  on  the  Potomac, 
Falmouth  on  the  Rappahannock,  and  many  other 
towns  including  Blandford.  In  1772,  out  of  ninety 
thousand  hogsheads  of  tobacco  imported  into  Britain, 
Glasgow  imported  forty-nine  thousand;  and  one  of 
her  merchants  (Glassford)  owned  twenty-five  ships 
in  the  trade.  The  tobacco-lords  were  the  magnates 
(great  folks)  of  Glasgow.  They  promenaded  the 
Trongate  in  long  scarlet  robes  and  bushy  wigs,  and 
other  men  gave  way  as  they  passed.  Virginia  Street 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      33 

and  Jamaica  Street  in  Glasgow  still  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  the  trade  which  enriched  her  merchants, 
and  gave  such  great  impulse  to  her  prosperity,  and 
changed  her  social  physiognomy." 

As  the  tobacco  trade  enriched  the  merchants  of 
Glasgow,  so  the  cultivation  and  exportation  of  the 
weed  enriched  the  river-barons  of  Colonial  Virginia 
who  "raised"  it  with  their  hordes  of  negro  slaves 
upon  fertile  and  teeming  low-ground  plantations. 
But  tobacco  in  this  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  now  only  a  memory  along  the  Rappahannock 
River,  having  vanished  therefrom  as  a  staple  crop 
as  entirely  as  the  social  life  that  grew  out  of  it  and 
was  organized  upon  it  has  utterly  disappeared. 


CHAPTER  II 

PARENTS 

A  characteristic  of  the  families  of  the  river- 
planters  in  colonial  days  was  the  large  number  of 
children.  The  complex  civilization  of  to-day  which 
tends  to  minimize  the  size  of  the  average  well-to-do 
family  in  America  was  unknown  to  the  wealthy  colo- 
nists, who  led  the  simple  life  of  their  period  in  a 
luxury  that  seemed  to  deny  the  existence  of  sim- 
plicity. After  the  fashion  of  their  neighbors  John 
Gordon  and  his  wife,  Lucy  Churchill,  had  a  large 
family.  Their  children  were  twelve  in  number,  and 
of  these  the  oldest  was  James,  called  "junior,"  and 
"of  Orange,"  to  distinguish  him  from  his  first  cousin, 
James  Gordon,  of  Lancaster,  oldest  son  of  Colonel 
James,  the  immigrant. 

James  Gordon,  of  Orange,  was  born  at  Urbanna 
in  1759;  and  was  therefore  but  a  child  when  his 
father  moved  to  Richmond  County,  higher  up  the 
river,  to  live.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  was 
elected  to  represent  that  county  in  the  House  of 
Delegates  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  his 
colleague  being  Robert  W.  Carter,  of  the  stock  of 
the  "King."  In  the  same  session  the  adjacent  county 
of  Lancaster  was  represented  by  his  cousin  James 
Gordon,  about  nine  years  his  senior;  and  these  two 
cousins,  who  were  also  brothers-in-law,  were  mem- 
bers together  of  the  Virginia  Convention  of  1788, 
that  ratified  the  Federal  Constitution.  In  spite  of 
the  spread  of  democratic  ideas  in  the  new  Republic, 
the  old  families  still  continued  powerful  both  in  the 
social  and  political  life;  and  the  rosters  of  General 
Assemblies  and  conventions  in  Virginia,  after  it  had 
become  a  Commonwealth,  were  for  a  long  period 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       35 

alike  made  up  of  the  surnames  that  had  appeared 
upon  the  legislative  records  of  the  colony. 

James  Gordon,  of  Orange,  married  his  first  cousin, 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Colonel  James  Gordon,  of 
Lancaster,  and  his  wife,  Mary  Harrison,  in  August, 
1777;  and  before  his  father's  death  removed  from 
Richmond  County  to  "Germanna"  in  Orange 
County,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  as  a 
planter  and  country  gentleman — a  career  that  was 
only  briefly  interrupted  by  his  service  as  a  delegate 
in  the  State  Convention  of  1788. 

"The  ancient  town  of  Germanna,  founded  by  Gov- 
ernor Spotswood,"  and  the  original  county-seat  of 
Spottsylvania,  is  described  by  Hugh  Jones,  in  his 
"Present  State  of  Virginia,"  published  in  1724. 
"Beyond  Colonel  Spotswood's  furnace,"  he  writes, 
"above  the  Falls  of  Rappahannock  River,  within 
view  of  the  vast  mountains,  he  has  founded  a  town 
called  Germanna,  from  some  Germans  sent  over  by 
Queen  Anne,  who  are  now  removed  up  further. 
Here  he  has  servants  and  workmen  of  most  handi- 
craft trades;  and  he  is  building  a  church,  court-house 
and  dwelling-house  for  himself;  and  with  his  ser- 
vants and  negroes  he  has  cleared  plantations  about  it, 
proposing  great  encouragement  for  people  to  come 
and  settle  in  that  uninhabited  part  of  the  world, 
lately  divided  into  a  county." 

Some  years  after  Hugh  Jones's  book  was  pub- 
lished, that  colonial  litterateur  and  society  magnate, 
Colonel  William  Byrd,  of  Westover,  visited  Ger- 
manna, and  gave  in  his  account  of  "A  Progress  to 
the  Mines"  a  vivid  and  picturesque  description  of 
"this  famous  town,"  which,  he  says,  "consists  of 
Colonel  Spotswood's  enchanted  castle  on  one  side  of 
the  street,  and  a  baker's  dozen  of  ruinous  tenements 
on  the  other,  where  so  many  German  families  had 
dwelt  some  years  ago ;  but  are  now  removed  ten  miles 
higher,  in  the  fork  of  the  Rappahannock  to  land  of 
their  own";  and  where,  too,  "there  had  also  been 


36      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

a  chapel  about  a  bowshot  from  the  Colonel's  house, 
at  the  end  of  an  avenue  of  cherry  trees,  but  some 
pious  people  had  lately  burnt  it  down,  with  intent  to 
get  another  built  nearer  to  their  own  homes." 

By  the  time  that  James  Gordon  moved  from  Rich- 
mond County  to  settle  at  Germanna,  the  tide  of 
population,  which  had  at  first  been  almost  altogether 
along  the  river-ways,  was  flowing  out  into  those 
"uninhabited  parts  of  the  world"  that  were  primarily 
Orange  and  Augusta  counties,  a  vast  territory  ex- 
panding indefinitely  to  the  west  and  northwest,  which 
later  became,  at  the  generous  gift  of  Virginia  to  the 
Union,  many  great  and  populous  commonwealths. 

Here,  in  the  vicinity  of  a  barren  stretch  of  inhos- 
pitable territory,  a  border  line  between  Spottsylvania 
and  Orange,  described  as  "of  melancholy,  forbidding 
exterior,"  and  known  as  "The  Wilderness,"  where 
nearly  a  century  after  his  coming  some  of  the  most 
sanguinary  battles  of  the  fiercest  war  of  modern  his- 
tory were  fought,  James  Gordon  builded  his  house, 
and  acquired  acres  of  fertile  river  lands,  and  reared 
his  children;  and  here  he  throve  apace  and  pros- 
pered in  worldly  gear,  until  in  his  later  years  the 
prodigal  hospitality  which  characterized  many  Vir- 
ginia homes  of  the  period  brought  him  finally  to 
modest  circumstances,  though  not  to  poverty.  Here, 
too,  he  grew  and  advanced  in  the  good  opinion  of 
his  neighbors  and  the  community,  as  a  man  of  cour- 
age, of  probity  and  of  intelligence,  until  when  the 
time  came  in  1788  for  the  people  of  Virginia  to 
determine  the  momentous  question  of  their  future 
relations  to  the  other  sovereign  States  of  the  Con- 
federation, the  people  of  Orange  elected  him,  along 
with  James  Madison,  as  their  representative  in  the 
convention  called  to  pass  upon  the  question  of  the 
adoption  or  rejection  of  the  new  Federal  Constitu- 
tion. James  Gordon  was  a  strong  advocate  of  adop- 
tion; and  entertaining  a  warm  personal  and  political 
friendship  for  Mr.  Madison,  was  eager  to  see  him 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      37 

elected  as  a  delegate.  On  the  iyth  of  February, 
1788,  we  find  him  writing  from  Germanna  to  the 
latter,  then  in  New  York,  as  follows : 

''Dear  Sir:  Being  favored  by  Colonel  Monroe 
with  a  sight  of  your  letter  of  the  27th  of  January, 
and  finding  no  mention  therein  of  your  being  in  our 
country  in  a  short  time,  I  take  the  liberty  as  your 
friend  to  solicit  your  attendance  at  March  Orange 
court.  I  am  induced  to  make  such  a  request  as  I 
believe  it  will  give  the  country  in  general  great  satis- 
faction to  hear  your  sentiments  on  the  new  Consti- 
tution. Your  friends  are  very  solicitous  for  your  ap- 
pointment in  the  convention  to  meet  in  June  next.  I 
trust,  were  it  not  practicable  for  you  to  attend,  your 
election  will  be  secured;  but  your  being  present 
would  not  admit  a  doubt.  Colonel  Thomas  Barbour, 
Mr.  Charles  Porter,  and  myself  enter  the  list  with 
you.  The  two  former  gentlemen  are  exceedingly 
averse  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  in  this 
State;  and,  being  acquainted  with  them,  you  will 
readily  determine  no  means  in  their  power  will  be 
wanting  to  procure  a  seat  in  convention.  The  senti- 
ments of  the  people  of  Orange  are  much  divided. 
The  best  men,  in  my  judgment,  are  for  the  constitu- 
tion; but  several  of  those  who  have  much  weight 
with  the  people  are  opposed, — Parson  Bledsoe  and 
Leeland,  and  Colonel  Z.  Burnley.  Upon  the  whole, 
sir,  I  think  it  is  incumbent  on  you  without  delay  to  re- 
pair to  this  State;  as  the  loss  of  the  constitution  in 
this  State  may  involve  consequences  the  most  alarm- 
ing to  every  citizen  of  America. 

"I  am,  Dear  Sir,  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

"JAMES  GORDON." 

General  Washington  had  written  to  Mr.  Madison 
two  weeks  earlier,  urging  him  to  offer  himself  as  a 
candidate  for  the  convention;  and  other  friends  and 
supporters  insisted,  as  James  Gordon  had  done,  that 
he  should  return  and  conduct  his  canvass  in  person. 


3  8      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Madison  wrote  that  he  was  reluctant  in  the  matter. 
"I  can  say,  with  great  truth,"  he  said,  "that  in  this 
overture  I  sacrifice  every  private  inclination  to  con- 
siderations not  of  a  selfish  nature.  I  foresee  that  the 
undertaking  will  involve  me  in  very  laborious  and 
irksome  discussions;  that  public  opposition  to  sev- 
eral very  respectable  characters,  whoje  esteem  and 
friendship  I  greatly  prize,  may  unintentionally  en- 
danger the  existing  connection;  and  that  disagree- 
able misconstructions,  of  which  samples  have  been 
already  given,  may  be  the  fruit  of  those  exertions 
which  fidelity  will  impose." 

In  response,  however,  to  the  summons  of  his 
friends  he  left  New  York,  where  he  was  in  attend- 
ance on  the  session  of  Congress  as  a  delegate  from 
Virginia,  and  stopping  on  his  way  at  Mount  Vernon 
to  see  General  Washington,  arrived  in  Orange  on  the 
day  before  the  election. 

Colonel  Frank  Taylor,  of  Orange,  in  his  "Diary," 
a  portion  of  which  is  published  in  Slaughter's  "St. 
Mark's  Parish,"  says  under  date  of  1788,  "March 
24th.  Election,  for  Convention,  James  Madison 
202  votes,  James  Gordon  187,  C.  Porter  34."  Mr. 
Harbour's  vote  does  not  appear,  although  he  seems 
to  have  remained  in  the  field. 

It  was  no  inconsiderable  distinction  for  James 
Gordon,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  to  have  been  se- 
lected for  so  important  and  responsible  an  office; 
and  the  significance  of  his  election  was  emphasized  in 
the  fact  that  his  colleague  was  a  man  whose  fame  as 
a  statesman  was  already  spread  over  all  the  States, 
and  who  later  became  the  expounder  and  interpreter 
of  the  Constitution  on  which  they  were  to  pass,  and 
a  chief  executive  officer  of  its  administration.  The 
Hon.  William  C.  Rives,  in  his  "Life  and  Times  of 
Madison,"  adds  to  the  candidates  named  by  Colonel 
Taylor,  and  as  stated  by  James  Gordon  in  his  letter 
to  Mr.  Madison,  the  name  of  "Colonel  Thomas 
Barbour,  father  of  Mr.  James  and  Mr.  Philip  Bar- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      39 

hour,  each  of  whom  rose  to  great  future  eminence  in 
the  public  service  of  the  country";  and  with  each  of 
whom  James  Gordon's  son,  William  Fitzhugh  Gor- 
don, maintained  a  personal  friendship  that  was  inti- 
mate and  a  political  sympathy  that  was  unwavering 
and  lasting. 

The  convention,  which  assembled  in  Richmond  on 
the  2nd  day  of  June,  1788,  continued  its  session  for 
nearly  a  month.  "On  Wednesday,  the  4th  day  of 
June,"  says  Mr.  Rives,  "the  convention  resolved 
itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole,  Mr.  Wythe  in 
the  chair,  to  take  into  consideration  the  proposed  plan 
of  government.  In  the  lists,  on  the  side  of  the  Con- 
stitution, appeared  as  the  principal  combatants,  Mr. 
Pendleton,  Mr.  Madison,  Governor  Randolph,  Mr. 
George  Nicholas,  Mr.  John  Marshall,  Mr.  Innes, 
Colonel  Henry  Lee  and  Mr.  Corbin;  in  opposition 
to  it,  Mr.  Henry,  Colonel  Mason,  Mr.  Monroe,  Mr. 
Grayson,  Colonel  Benjamin  Harrison,  former  Gov- 
ernor, and  Mr.  Tyler." 

Patrick  Henry,  with  fiery  impetuosity,  proclaimed 
the  issue  in  his  opening  speech. 

"Give  me  leave,"  he  said,  "to  demand  what  right 
had  they  to  say,  'We  the  people,'  instead  of  'We  the 
States?" 

James  Gordon's  attitude  in  the  convention  was  one 
of  modesty  and  self-effacement.  His  political  views 
and  principles  were  those  of  Mr.  Madison;  and 
while  we  find  him  vigorously  espousing  what  was 
then  the  Federalist  cause,  his  Federalism  was  never 
of  the  Hamiltonian  type,  which  sought  to  exalt  the 
central  government  at  the  expense  of  the  sovereignty 
of  the  States.  His  anxiety  was  to  see  the  adoption  of 
a  form  of  government  that  should  prove  more  cohe- 
sive and  vigorous  than  that  under  the  Articles  of 
Confederation;  but  he  was  in  other  respects  as  con- 
servative as  was  his  great  colleague,  of  whom  Hamil- 
ton, in  factious  anger,  said,  when  he  found  Madison 
opposing  the  assumption  of  the  debts  of  the  States 


40      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

by  the  General  Government,  "I  cannot  persuade 
myself  that  Mr.  Madison  and  I,  whose  politics  had 
formerly  so  much  the  same  point  of  departure, 
should  now  diverge  so  widely  in  our  opinions  of  the 
measures  which  are  proper  to  be  pursued." 

Being  a  simple  planter  and  country  gentleman, 
James  Gordon  entertained  no  political  ambitions. 
He  was  a  delegate  inspired  with  a  patriotic  desire  to 
serve  his  people  according  to  his  best  lights;  and 
while  he  does  not  figure  conspicuously  in  the  de- 
bates of  the  convention,  yet  it  may  well  be  imagined 
that  possessing  strong  convictions,  endowed  with 
health  and  energy,  and  wielding  the  persuasive  in- 
fluences of  a  magnetic  and  pleasing  personality,  he 
illustrated  by  his  services  in  the  committee-room 
those  qualities  which  had  made  him  the  choice  of  his 
constituency  at  home. 

The  Federal  Constitution  was  adopted  by  Vir- 
ginia ;  and  James  Gordon  retired  finally  from  public 
life  to  the  more  pleasing  duties  and  occupations  of  a 
domestic  and  social  career.  Yet  with  his  retirement 
he  did  not  cease  to  maintain  an  earnest  interest  in 
politics,  and  in  the  successful  administration  of  gov- 
ernment under  its  new  instrumentalities.  On  the 
3ist  of  August,  1788,  still  absorbed  with  the  public 
questions  of  the  day,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Madison, 
again  in  New  York  in  attendance  on  the  Congress : 

"My  dear  Sir:  Your  several  letters  of  the  25th 
and  2yth  of  July  I  have  received;  and  should  have 
Answered  them  ere  this,  but  they  did  not  come  to 
hand  until  a  few  days  since  at  Orange  Court  House. 

"I  am  pleased  to  find  the  ratification  of  the  consti- 
tution by  New  York  was  unconditional;  but  I  fear 
from  the  circular  letter  therefrom  much  disquietude 
may  succeed  in  those  States  where  the  majorities  arc 
not  large.  I  expect  that  letter  will  be  eagerly  caught 
by  Mr.  P.  Henry,  who  in  our  next  assembly  will  be 
greatly  an  overmatch  for  any  Federalist  that  I  know 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      41 

in  the  same.  I  trust  there  are  a  majority  of  Feder- 
alists in  the  House,  who  I  hope  will  firmly  withstand 
the  artful  intrigues  of  designing  men;  but  there  are 
instances  of  the  most  heroic  conduct  being  defeated 
for  want  of  a  competent  commander.  Such  an  one  I 
fear  we  have  not  in  our  House  of  Delegates. 

"I  have  carefully  perused  the  numbers  of  the 
Federalist,  and  am  happy  to  say  the  arguments 
therein  contained  are  sufficiently  satisfactory  to  my 
mind,  and  must  carry  conviction  to  every  candid 
reader.  We  are  all  in  quiet  at  present;  there  ap- 
pears to  be  little  or  no  opposition  from  the  Antis. 
I  have  been  informed  they  are  generally  pretty  well 
satisfied,  but  I  rather  think  their  conduct  is  intended 
to  lull  the  friends  to  the  new  government  into  a  state 
of  security,  and  then  in  the  fall  to  make  a  violent 
attack.  I  am  sorry  to  find  New  York  is,  as  the  Vir- 
ginia Convention,  against  the  power  of  direct  taxa- 
tion, without  which  I  fear,  nay,  I  am  certain,  the 
most  apparent  evils  will  ensue.  To  form  a  govern- 
ment without  such  a  necessary  power  would  be  nearly 
as  ridiculous  as  for  such  a  government  to  send  per- 
sons to  transact  business  of  importance,  far  distant, 
without  the  sufficient  sum  of  money  to  enable  such 
persons  to  make  good  their  journey,  and  thereby  to 
obtain  requisitions  from  those  who  were  not  com- 
pelled to  assist.  Should  such  an  amendment  take 
place,  the  long  and  glorious  endeavors  of  our  patriots 
will  be  of  little  or  far  less  beneficial  consequences, 
than  their  unwearied  attention  for  the  interests  of 
America  merited. 

"The  conduct  of  North  Carolina  you  have  seen. 
Should  they  be  fortunate  enough  to  be  seconded  by 
Rhode  Island,  from  their  local  situation,  their  knowl- 
edge in  political  science,  and  numbers,  the  eleven 
Confederate  States  have  everything  to  fear.  Good 
God!  What  can  they  promise  themselves?  Being 
the  consumers  of  two  importing  States,  and  so  unable 
to  stand  upon  their  own  ground,  I  should  have 


42       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

thought  they  would  have  greedily  caught  the  Union. 
It  is  reported  that  Mr.  Henry  has  influenced  their 
councils  considerably  since  the  rising  of  our  conven- 
tion, of  the  truth  of  which  I  have  not  sufficient 
knowledge. 

"I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  your  Father  and 
most  of  your  friends  the  last  week,  who  are  all  well. 

"It  will  be  a  matter  of  satisfaction  to  your  friends 
in  this  State  to  know  whether  you  wish  to  be  in  the 
Senate  or  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress so  soon  as  the  districts  are  laid  out.  I  hope 
there  will  be  care  taken  not  to  send  to  Congress  those 
who  are  inimical  to  the  Constitution.  I  shall  ever 
esteem  it  a  singular  favor  to  receive  any  intelligence 
from  you,  and  your  advice  upon  any  subject  will  be 
an  additional  obligation  on,  dear  sir,  your  sincere 
friend  and  affectionate  humble  servant, 

JAMES  GORDON,  JUNR." 

The  writer's  apprehension  of  Patrick  Henry's 
influence  in  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  which 
met  in  the  following  October,  was  justified  by  events. 
Two-thirds  of  its  members  were  "Antis,"  opposed  to 
the  new  Constitution.  The  election  of  Senators  from 
Virginia  was  one  of  the  duties  of  this  Assembly;  and 
Henry's  efforts  to  defeat  Madison  for  the  Senator- 
ship  were  successful.  William  Grayson  and  Richard 
Henry  Lee  were  elected  Virginia's  first  Senators 
under  the  new  Federal  Constitution,  upon  the  nomi- 
nation of  Henry;  although  Mr.  Madison  was  the 
sole  candidate  presented  by  those  on  the  side  of  the 
Constitution. 

The  result  of  the  Senatorial  election  in  the  General 
Assembly  failed  to  disturb  Madison.  His  original 
preference  had  been  for  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives;  and  he  became  a  candidate  in  a  district 
composed  of  the  counties  of  Amherst,  Albemarle, 
Louisa,  Orange,  Culpeper,  Spottsylvania,  Gooch- 
land  and  Fluvanna.  Madison  charged  in  a  letter  to 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      43 

Mr.  Jefferson  that  this  district  had  been  "gerry- 
mandered," as  such  a  process  is  now  known,  in  that 
only  one  of  the  seven  counties  composing  the  district, 
besides  his  own,  had  given  an  undivided  vote  in  the 
convention  for  the  Constitution.  Madison  said  in 
this  letter  to  Jefferson,  that  Henry,  after  compassing 
his  defeat  for  the  Senate,  had  "taken  equal  pains,  in 
forming  the  counties  into  districts  for  the  election  of 
representatives,  to  associate  with  Orange  such  as  are 
most  devoted  to  his  politics,  and  most  likely  to  be 
swayed  by  the  prejudices  excited  against  me." 

"The  device  of  gerrymandering,"  comments  Madi- 
son's biographer,  Mr.  Rives,  "would  thus  seem  not 
to  have  the  origin  its  name  imports,  and  which  com- 
mon fame  assigns  it,  but  to  have  been  first  put  in 
practice,  though  ineffectually,  by  the  great  Virginia 
orator  and  tribune,  against  Mr.  Madison  in  the  first 
election  of  representatives  under  the  Constitution." 

After  casting  about  and  considering  Mr.  Strother 
and  Mr.  William  Cabell,  the  elder,  the  "Antis" 
finally  settled  on  James  Monroe  as  the  opposing  can- 
didate. Mr.  Madison  arrived  in  Virginia  from  New 
York  about  the  close  of  December,  and  the  election 
took  place  on  the  following  2d  of  February;  and  a 
number  of  political  discussions,  a  divertisernent  which 
to  the  present  day  has  been  the  delight  of  the  Vir- 
ginia voters,  ensued  between  the  candidates.  The 
election  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Madison  by  a 
decided  majority. 

Mr.  Rives  says:  "Mr.  Madison  often  gave  a 
graphic  and  amusing  account  of  a  discussion  which 
took  place  between  him  and  Mr.  Monroe,  in  the 
open  air,  on  a  cold  January  day,  amid  the  bleak  hills 
of  Culpeper.  They  addressed  the  people  in  the  face 
of  a  keen  northeasterly  wind,  from  the  portico  of  a 
Lutheran  meeting-house,  after  the  close  of  the  reli- 
gious services  of  the  day;  with  which  the  grave  and 
solemn  import  of  the  question  discussed  to  the  future 
destinies  of  the  country  was  supposed  to  be  not  out  of 


44       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

keeping.  Such  was  the  extremity  of  the  cold,  that 
Mr.  Madison's  ear  was  slightly  frost-bitten  while 
speaking.  Some  traces  of  the  injury  always  re- 
mained; and  he  would  playfully  point  to  them  as  the 
honorable  scars  he  had  borne  from  the  battlefield. 
It  is  gratifying  to  know,  that  this  brief  political  cam- 
paign was  not  attended  with  any  interruption  of  the 
personal  cordiality  of  the  parties.  In  writing  a  few 
weeks  afterwards  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  common 
friend  of  both,  Mr.  Madison  says:  'It  gives  me 
great  pleasure  to  inform  you,  that  the  friendship  of 
Monroe  and  myself  has  not  been  affected  in  any  de- 
gree, by  our  late  political  opposition.'  ' 

In  "The  Journal  of  a  Young  Lady  of  Virginia, 
1792,"  written  by  Miss  Lucy  Lee,  which  preserves 
a  very  sprightly  and  vivid  picture  of  the  social  life  of 
the  period  in  the  new  Commonwealth,  frequent  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  Gordons  of  Germanna,  in  whose 
hospitable  home  the  writer  appears  to  have  been  a 
welcome  guest. 

"Mr.  James  Gordon,"  says  the  fair  diarist,  "is 
come  from  Chatham.  Mrs.  Fitzhugh  has  sent  me  a 
very  pressing  invitation  to  go  there  this  evening,  and 
to-morrow  to  the  races;  but  I  have  not  the  smallest 
inclination,  and  shall  not  go.  This  Mr.  Gordon  is  a 
mighty  clever  man, — I  wish  you  could  see  him." 

This  vivacious  journal  was  composed  for  the 
benefit  of  a  young  girl  friend  of  the  author's;  and 
contains  in  its  many  passages  concerning  Germanna 
and  its  residents  a  number  of  interesting  references  to 
"old  Mrs.  Gordon,"  widow  of  John  of  Richmond, 
who  had  come  to  Orange  to  reside  with  her  son 
James,  after  his  father's  death,  and  to  the  other 
members  of  the  family.  At  the  time  of  Miss  Lee's 
inscription  in  her  diary  of  the  arrival  of  "Mr.  James 
Gordon"  from  Chatham,  that  well-known  seat  of  the 
Fitzhughs  in  Virginia  was  the  residence  of  William 
Fitzhugh,  grandfather  of  the  wife  of  General  Robert 
E.  Lee.  William  Fitzhugh  at  a  later  date  removed 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      45 

to  Ravensworth,  in  Fairfax  County,  which  after- 
wards became  the  home  of  General  William  Henry 
Fitzhugh  Lee,  the  second  son  of  General  Robert  E. 
Lee.  William  Fitzhugh,  of  Chatham,  and  of 
Ravensworth,  was  a  man  of  singular  nobility  of  char- 
acter and  fine  sense;  and  was  so  greatly  admired  and 
beloved  by  James  Gordon  that  the  latter  named  for 
him  the  subject  of  this  biography,  his  second  son, 
William  Fitzhugh  Gordon.  The  latter  was  accus- 
tomed to  say  that  he  had  once  asked  his  father,  when 
he  was  a  lad,  why  it  was  that  he  had  named  each  of 
his  three  brothers  after  the  Churchills, — John 
Churchill,  Armistead  Churchill,  and  Thomas 
Churchill, — and  had  named  him  Fitzhugh;  and  that 
liis  father  had  replied  to  him  with  an  appearance  of 
deep  feeling,  which  left  its  lasting  impression :  "My 
son,  if  you  shall  emulate  the  virtues  and  the  life  of 
the  man  for  whom  I  have  named  you,  there  will 
never  be  need  for  you  to  regret  that  you  failed  to 
have  a  different  name." 

James  Gordon,  of  Orange,  appears  from  the  re- 
cords of  Orange,  Spottsylvania  and  Culpeper  coun- 
ties, to  have  been  a  large  landed  proprietor,  owning 
various  tracts  in  those  counties,  aggregating  several 
thousand  acres.  Among  them  in  described  "a  cer- 
tain tract  or  parcel  of  land  lying  in  the  lower  end  of 
Orange  County,  being  a  part  of  the  tract  of  land 
originally  sold  by  General  Alexander  Spotswood  to 
Mr.  Peter  Conway,  containing  by  State  survey  652 
acres";  and  another  tract  in  Spottsylvania,  which  is 
described,  in  a  deed  from  General  Henry  Lee 
("Lighthorse  Harry"),  and  Ann  Lee  his  wife  to 
Tames  Gordon,  named  therein  as  "of  Culpeper,"  as 
"531  acres,  with  all  Houses,  Buildings,  Gardens, 
Orchards,  Woods,  underwoods,  ways,  waterways, 
profits,  easements,  advantages,  hereditaments  and 
appurtenances  whatsoever  to  the  said  land  belong- 
ing"—  a  description  which  would  seem  to  character- 
ize the  leisure,  the  perspicuity  and  the  picturesque- 


46      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

ness  of  the  times,  when  compared  with  the  usual  de- 
scription in  the  average  conveyance  of  lands  in  this 
more  prosaic  and  hurrying  day. 

James  Gordon  died  intestate  in  the  prime  of  life, 
aged  forty,  at  his  home  at  Germanna,  on  Saturday, 
December  14,  1799 — a  day  piously  and  patriotically 
remembered  and  commemorated  by  his  children  and 
descendants  as  that  on  which  also  occurred  the  death 
of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  General  George  Wash- 
ington. His  public  career  consisted  solely,  as  has 
been  stated,  in  his  service  in  the  General  Assembly 
of  Virginia  and  in  the  Convention  of  1788;  but  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  that  his  descendants  and  those 
of  his  uncle,  Colonel  James  Gordon,  of  Lancaster, 
have  been  prominent  members  of,  or  connected  in  an 
official  capacity  with  every  constitutional  convention, 
save  one,  which  has  ever  sat  in  Virginia.  His  first 
cousin  and  brother-in-law,  James  Gordon  the  second, 
of  Lancaster,  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  of 
1776,  which  framed  Virginia's  first  written  constitu- 
tion; and  also  represented  that  county  in  the  Con- 
vention of  1788,  where  he  advocated  the  cause  of 
Henry  and  the  "Antis."  William  Fitzhugh  Gordon 
was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1829-30;  and  his  son  and  namesake  William  Fitz- 
hugh Gordon,  Jr.,  was  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  held  in  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond in  1 86 1,  which  adopted  the  Ordinance  of 
Secession,  and  was  the  special  emissary  of  the  conven- 
tion who  conveyed  the  official  copy  of  that  tre- 
mendous document  to  Jefferson  Davis,  President  of 
the  Confederate  States,  at  Montgomery,  Alabama. 
Again,  in  1868,  when  the  carpetbaggers  and  scala- 
wags in  Virginia  gathered  at  Richmond,  after  the 
close  of  the  War  between  the  States,  to  reconstruct 
what  had  been  the  Commonwealth,  and  was  then 
"Military  District  Number  One,"  by  framing  a  new 
constitution  that  would  be  acceptable  to  the  powers 
at  Washington,  a  great  grandson  of  Colonel  James 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       47 

Gordon,  of  Lancaster,  the  honorable  Joseph  Addison 
Waddell,  of  Augusta  County,  was  one  of  a  small  but 
devoted  band  of  patriots  in  the  "Black  and  Tan" 
Convention,  who  sought  to  stem  the  tide  of  ignorance 
and  hatred.  In  the  restored  and  revitalized  State, 
its  latest  Constitutional  Convention  assembled  in 
Richmond  in  1901  to  amend  and  alter  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  "Black  and  Tan"  gathering;  and  in  that 
body's  one  hundred  members  were  numbered  three 
descendants  of  the  two  emigrant  brothers  from 
Newry — one  of  them,  James  Gordon  Waddell,  a 
great-great-grandson  of  Colonel  James  Gordon,  of 
Lancaster,  representing  the  city  of  Richmond,  and  the 
other  two,  great  grandsons  of  James  Gordon,  of 
Orange,  namely,  Reuben  Lindsay  Gordon,  represent- 
ing the  county  of  Louisa,  and  William  Gordon  Rob- 
ertson, representing  the  city  and  county  of  Roanoke. 
In  the  county  of  his  adoption  the  memory  of 
James  Gordon,  of  Orange,  is  preserved  in  the  desig- 
nation of  one  of  its  four  magisterial  districts,  the 
other  three  of  which  bear  the  historic  names  of  Madi- 
son, of  Barbour,  and  of  Taylor. 


CHAPTER  III 

EARLY  LIFE 

Soon  after  the  death  of  his  father,  William  Fitz- 
hugh  Gordon,  who  was  born  at  Germanna,  January 
13,  1787,  and  was  the  second  son  of  his  parents,  was 
sent  to  the  neighboring  town  of  Fredencksburg  to 
learn  the  mercantile  business  in  the  store  of  a  thrifty 
Scotch  merchant  there.  He  was  then  in  his  thir- 
teenth year.  His  father,  notwithstanding  his  large 
landed  possessions,  had  died,  as  has  been  stated,  leav- 
ing his  estate  more  or  less  embarassed;  and  there 
was  no  ready  money  available  for  a  college  education 
of  the  lad,  besides  whom  there  were  three  other  boys 
and  two  girls  in  the  family.  He  had  attended  a 
neighborhood  "old-field  school"  in  his  father's  life- 
time, where  "reading,  writing  and  arithmetic"  were 
taught;  and  of  these  elementary  branches  he  had 
acquired  a  very  good  knowledge.  His  lines  fell  in 
profitable,  if  not  pleasant  places,  however,  in  his 
association  with  the  Fredericksburg  Scotchman,  who 
was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  education;  and  form- 
ing an  attachment  for  his  young  clerk,  in  whom  he 
perceived  the  promise  of  capacity  and  industry,  this 
gentleman  himself  directed,  as  best  he  could,  the 
boy's  education  during  the  time  that  he  remained 
with  him.  After  several  years  thus  spent  in  Freder- 
icksburg, during  which  he  applied  himself  closely 
both  to  his  business  and  his  books,  young  Gordon  se- 
cured a  position  as  a  school  teacher,  and  conducted  a 
school  for  one  or  more  sessions,  until  he  could  make 
and  save  enough  money  to  pay  his  way  in  a  good 
classical  academy.  At  this  time  his  cousin,  James 
Gordon  Waddell,  son  of  "the  Blind  Preacher,"  was 
conducting  a  school  for  boys  and  young  men  at 
Spring  Hill,  just  across  the  road  from  Hopewell,  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       49 

residence  of  the  "old  man  eloquent,"  near  the  town 
of  Gordonsville.  Gordon  entered  his  cousin's  school, 
and  lived  in  the  meantime  in  the  house  of  Dr.  Wad- 
dell,  paying  his  board  and  tuition  with  the  money 
which  he  had  earned  for  the  purpose.  For  the  mem- 
bers of  this  family  he  always  afterwards  cherished 
and  manifested  a  devoted  affection;  and  his  admira- 
tion for  the  goodness  of  "the  Blind  Preacher"  was 
as  lively  as  that  which  he  entertained  for  his  ora- 
torical ability.  He  was  accustomed  in  after  years  to 
speak  of  the  time  which  he  spent  at  Hopewell  as  one 
of  the  most  valuable,  as  it  was  one  of  the  pleasantest 
periods  of  his  life;  and  to  say  that  he  cared  for  none 
of  his  relatives  more  than  he  did  for  his  Waddell 
kin. 

After  attending  the  Spring  Hill  academy  for  two 
sessions,  he  left  it  with  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  classics  that  was  unexcelled  by  that  of  any 
youth  in  the  school — an  accomplishment  which  was 
doubtless  due  no  less  to  the  fine  classical  acquirements 
and  skillful  instruction  of  his  preceptor,  who  was  a 
cultured  and  highly  educated  man,  than  to  the  boy's 
own  natural  aptitude  and  industry  as  a  student. 

When  he  was  in  his  twentieth  year  he  returned  to 
Fredericksburg;  and  having  determined  to  pursue 
the  profession  of  the  law,  he  obtained  a  position  as 
law-clerk  in  the  office  of  General  Benjamin  Botts, 
who  not  only  paid  him  for  the  services  which  he 
rendered,  but  directed  and  assisted  him  in  his  legal 
studies.  This  method  of  combining  the  study  of  law 
with  the  acquisition  of  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
profession  was  a  favorite  one  with  those  young  men 
of  the  day  who  proposed  to  become  lawyers;  and 
many  of  the  ablest  attorneys  in  Virginia  of  Gordon's 
generation  never  crossed  the  threshold  of  any  regu- 
larly constituted  law-school.  He  could  have  had  no 
more  efficient  or  interested  counsellor  and  friend  than 
General  Botts,  who  was  himself  one  of  the  leading 


50       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

lawyers  of  his  day  in  the  Commonwealth,  and  whom 
the  attractive  personality  and  evident  ability  and 
purpose  of  his  young  clerk  impressed,  as  they  had  at 
an  earlier  date  impressed  the  Scotch  merchant.  Gor- 
don during  this  period  attended  the  sessions  of  the 
courts  which  met  in  Fredericksburg,  and  saw  cases 
tried  and  heard  arguments  presented  by  many  dis- 
tinguished members  of  the  Virginia  bar,  which  in 
that  day  had  on  its  roster  the  names  of  men  who  were 
famous  the  country  over  for  legal  knowledge  and 
forensic  talents. 

It  was  during  his  stay  in  General  Botts's  office  that 
the  celebrated  trial  of  Aaron  Burr  for  treason  took 
place  in  Richmond.  The  preliminary  examination 
of  Burr  was  had  before  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and 
was  conducted  by  Caesar  Rodney,  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral of  the  United  States,  and  George  Hay,  the 
United  States  attorney  for  the  Federal  District  of 
Virginia,  John  Wickham  and  Edmund  Randolph  ap- 
pearing as  counsel  for  Burr.  Burr  was  sent  on  to  the 
Federal  grand  jury,  of  which  John  Randolph,  of 
Roanoke,  was  foreman,  and  was  admitted  to  bail. 
When  the  case  came  on  for  trial  on  the  indictment 
found,  Rodney  had  withdrawn  as  counsel  for  the 
prosecution,  and  William  Wirt  and  Mr.  McCrae  as- 
sisted Mr.  Hay;  while  General  Botts  and  Mr.  Baker 
appeared  with  Messrs.  Wickham  and  Randolph  for 
the  prisoner.  Both  prosecution  and  defense  were 
conducted  in  a  manner  noteworthy  not  only  in  politi- 
cal history  but  in  the  history  of  legal  trials,  as  one  of 
the  most  famous  that  has  ever  occurred  in  America. 
The  verdict  of  the  jury  was:  "We  of  the  jury  say 
that  Aaron  Burr  is  not  proved  to  be  guilty  under  this 
indictment  by  any  evidence  submitted  to  us.  We 
therefore  find  him  not  guilty." 

Gordon  remained  in  General  Botts'  office  about 
two  years,  making  the  most  of  his  time  in  study  and 
observation,  but  not  neglecting  in  the  meanwhile  the 
acquisition  of  another  branch  of  knowledge,  which 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       51 

was  as  essential  to  the  success  of  the  young  practi- 
tioner in  Virginia  as  that  of  Coke  on  Littleton.  He 
mingled  with  the  society  of  the  able  men  and  accom- 
plished women  for  which  the  town  of  Fredericksburg 
at  that  time  was  especially  noted,  and  while  studying 
human  nature,  at  the  same  time  enhanced  those  at- 
tractions of  manner  and  bearing,  and  developed  the 
natural  powers  of  conversation  which  throughout  his 
subsequent  career  made  his  society  eagerly  courted  by 
all  with  whom  he  became  acquainted.  He  possessed 
a  natural  gift  of  oratory,  which  he  cultivated  by  ex- 
ercise as  occasion  presented  itself;  and  having  at 
length  been  licensed  to  practice  law,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1808,  and  opened  an  office  at  Orange 
Court  House,  where  he  at  once  took  a  prominent 
position  among  the  members  of  the  junior  bar.  In 
1809,  regarding  Charlottesville,  the  county-seat  of 
the  adjoining  county  of  Albemarle,  as  a  more  advan- 
tageous location,  and  one  affording  a  larger  field  of 
opportunity,  he  removed  thither ;  and  from  that  time 
up  to  his  retirement  from  practice,  was  one  of  the 
most  prominent  of  the  members  of  his  profession  in 
the  county.  His  taste  for  speaking  soon  attracted  to 
him  the  attention  of  those  who  were  interested  in 
local  politics;  and  within  three  years  after  he  settled 
in  Charlottesville,  while  yet  in  his  twenty-fifth  year, 
he  was  made  Commonwealth's  Attorney  for  the 
county.  The  bar  of  Albemarle  at  that  time  was 
especially  strong  in  the  ability  and  acquirements  of 
the  lawyers  who  constituted  it.  Among  them  were 
Dabney  Carr,  a  nephew  of  Jefferson,  who  later  be- 
came chancellor,  and  a  distinguished  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State;  Joseph  J.  Monroe,  a 
brother  of  the  President,  who  was  Dabney  Carr's 
successor,  and  Gordon's  immediate  predecessor,  in 
the  office  of  Commonwealth's  Attorney;  John  S. 
Barbour,  later  legislator,  congressman,  member  of 
the  Virginia  Constitutional  Convention  of  1829-30, 
and  able  exponent  of  the  State-Rights  republicanism 


52      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

of  the  period  in  the  halls  of  the  Federal  Congress; 
Valentine  W.  Southall  and  Richard  H.  Field,  who 
are  remembered  as  among  the  great  Virginia  lawyers 
of  the  past.  It  was  a  notable  honor  thus  conferred 
upon  so  youthful  and  recent  a  comer ;  for  the  office, 
highly  responsible  and  dignified  always  in  itself 
throughout  Virginia,  has  been,  from  the  very  founda- 
tion of  the  county,  down  to  the  present  time,  espec- 
ially esteemed  by  the  people  of  Albemarle,  who  have 
been  proud  to  see  among  the  fourteen  lawyers  who 
have  held  it  since  1783,  in  addition  to  Carr,  Monroe 
and  Gordon,  men  so  eminent  in  the  profession  in 
their  generations  as  Valentine  W.  Southall,  William 
J.  Robertson,  R.  T.  W.  Duke,  Egbert  R.  Watson 
and  Micajah  Woods.  The  prosecution  of  criminal 
cases,  however,  did  not  appeal  to  Gordon's  tastes  or 
inclinations;  and  he  resigned  the  office  before  he  had 
served  out  his  first  term.  From  that  time  on,  during 
a  period  of  several  years,  and  until  he  became  en- 
grossed in  the  active  pursuit  of  politics,  he  devoted 
himself  assiduously  to  the  general  practice;  and  his 
services  were  especially  sought  after  for  the  defence 
of  criminal  cases,  where  his  combination  of  legal 
knowledge  with  ability  as  an  advocate  made  him 
unusually  strong.  During  this  period  of  his  life  he 
was  a  diligent  student  of  his  profession  as  a  science, 
and  laid  the  foundations  of  a  broad  acquaintance 
with  the  principles  of  jurisprudence  and  the  methods 
of  procedure  which  made  him  an  almost  invincible 
opponent  in  the  trial  of  a  litigated  law  case ;  and  gave 
him  at  once,  both  upon  his  entering  the  Virginia 
House  of  Delegates,  and  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives,  positions  upon  their  respective 
Judiciary  Committees.  In  these  positions,  as  herein- 
after detailed,  he  left  the  permanent  impress  of  his 
knowledge  and  his  ability  upon  the  legislation  both 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  of  the  Republic. 

A    close    personal     friendship    had    long    existed 
between   Gordon   and  James   Barbour,   later  highly 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       53 

distinguished  as  Secretary  of  War  in  the  Cabinet  of 
President  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  as  Minister  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James.  He  was  a  son  of  Colonel 
Thomas  Barbour,  who  had  been  one  of  the  "Anti" 
candidates  for  the  convention  of  1788  against  Mr. 
Madison  and  James  Gordon;  and  acquired  a  knowl- 
edge of  law  while  serving  as  deputy-sheriff.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  age  of  nineteen;  and  two 
years  later  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Delegates, 
where  he  served  sixteen  years,  when  he  was  chosen 
Governor.  After  a  term  as  Governor  he  was  elected 
to  the  United  States  Senate;  and  in  1837  presided 
over  the  Whig  Convention  at  Harrisburg,  which 
nominated  General  Harrison  for  the  Presidency. 
Although  Barbour  was  twelve  years  Gordon's  senior, 
a  strong  personal  intimacy  existed  between  them, 
which  despite  their  political  separation  some  years 
prior  to  the  former's  death  in  1842,  remained  unin- 
terrupted to  the  end. 

On  January  21,  1812,  we  find  Barbour,  who  had  a 
few  days  before  entered  upon  his  term  as  Governor, 
writing  from  Richmond  the  following  intimate  and 
ingenuous  letter  to  his  friend  Gordon: 

"Dear  Gordon:  I  received  your  letter  of  this 
month  some  days  past,  and  in  the  cant  of  public  men 
must  tell  you  that  I  should  forthwith  have  answered 
it  but  for  the  pressure  of  important  business.  Be- 
lieve me,  my  good  friend,  the  sentiments  of  affection 
it  breathed  were  precious  to  my  soul.  What  in  this 
life  can  equal  that  pleasure  which  arises  from  the 
communion  of  friendly  souls?  If  it  gives  new  and 
vivid  coloring  to  prosperity,  it  also  blunts  the  arrow 
of  misfortune.  Whether  then  my  doom  shall  be  one 
or  the  other,  let  me  always  have  this  solace.  And  I 
feel  an  indescribable  evidence  that  the  cord  of  sym- 
pathy and  affection  between  you  and  me  will  not 
easily  be  severed. 

"I   have  entered  upon  a  new  and  untried  path. 


54      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

What  may  be  the  result  is  left  to  all-trying  time. 
My  eye  is  steadfastly  fixed  upon  the  prosperity  of  my 
country,  for  which  I  may  say  to  my  friends  no  man 
has  a  more  ardent  attachment.  My  errors,  as  I  ap- 
prehend there  will  be  many,  by  all  who  know  me  will 
be  placed  to  their  true  cause,  in  which  they  know  my 
heart  will  have  no  share. 

"I  rejoice  that  there  is  a  fair  field  presented  to  you 
for  reaping  profit  and  renown  in  your  professional 
career.  I  do  not  mean  to  flatter  when  I  tell  you  that 
you  have  the  seeds  of  success.  They  only  want  culti- 
vation, and  I  pray  God  that  you  may  not  thwart  the 
bounty  of  nature.  And  I  must  tell  you,  not  to  puff 
you,  that  this  opinion  is  not  the  partiality  of  a  friend, 
but  I  have  heard  it  from  those  who  are  capable  of 
judging,  and  who  towards  you  are  impartial. 

"I  had  indulged  a  hope  when  I  retired  from  the 
bar  that  I  should  have  been  able  to  give  you  a  sub- 
stantial evidence  of  my  friendship  by  inviting  you  to 
take  under  your  care  all  my  business.  But  I  have 
just  been  advised  by  my  pupil,  John  S.  Barbour,  of 
his  determination  to  commence  practice  in  the  courts 
of  Albemarle  and  Orange.  From  circumstances 
which  a  feeling  heart  can  at  once  recognize,  his 
claims  are  paramount  to  any  other;  and  I  am  sure 
that  you  will  at  once  duly  appreciate  the  motives  that 
influence  me,  and  the  frankness  of  this  information. 

"The  House  of  Delegates  have  to-day  passed  a 
law  dividing  the  transmontane  district  into  four,  a 
new  judge  to  be  appointed,  and  one  to  attend  two  dis- 
tricts. What  will  be  its  fate  is  uncertain,  as  great 
doubts  are  entertained  in  the  Senate.  An  increase  of 
the  banking  capital  in  this  State,  to  the  amount  of 
three  million  dollars  in  the  aggregate,  is  likely  also 
to  pass  the  same  body,  and  the  result  of  the  question 
is  equally  uncertain,  as  it  has  to  pass  the  Senate  also. 

"No  doubt  seems  to  be  entertained  here  but  that 
war  is  inevitable.  The  late  Presidential  message 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       55 

seems  to  indicate  a  determined  spirit  of  hostility  on 
the  part  of  Great  Britain. 

"As  to  the  question  you  propound  of  the  legal  rep- 
resentative of  the  much  lamented  Botts,  you  have  no 
doubt  seen  the  advertisement  of  G.  Minor,  which 
has  already  advised  you  that  he  is  to  transact  his 
business. 

"I  am,  with  sentiments  of  friendship,  yours, 

"JAMES  BARBOUR. 

"Mr.  D.  Carr  has  been  excluded  to-day  by  P. 
Randolph  by  a  majority  of  22. — J.  B." 

On  the  26th  of  the  month  preceding  the  date  of 
Governor  Barbour's  letter  to  Gordon  a  public 
calamity  of  extraordinary  character  took  place  in 
Richmond.  The  Richmond  Theatre,  at  which  were 
assembled  an  audience  of  six  hundred  persons  to 
witness  a  new  drama,  for  the  benefit  of  Placide,  a 
favorite  actor,  which  was  to  be  succeeded  by  the 
pantomime  of  "The  Bleeding  Nun,"  was  burned 
with  great  loss  of  life.  "The  wild  legend,"  says  Mr. 
Howison,  in  his  "History  of  Virginia,"  "on  which 
this  spectacle  was  founded,  had  lost  none  of  its 
power  under  the  pen  of  Monk  Lewis,  and  even  in 
pantomime  it  had  awakened  great  interest.  The 
regular  piece  had  been  played;  the  pantomime  had 
commenced;  already  the  curtain  had  risen  upon  its 
second  act,  when  sparks  of  fire  were  seen  to  fall  from 
the  scenery  on  the  back  part  of  the  stage.  A  moment 
after,  Mr.  Robertson,  one  of  the  actors,  ran  for- 
ward, and  waving  his  hand  towards  the  ceiling, 
called  aloud  'The  house  is  on  fire !'  '  In  the  tumult 
that  ensued  the  flames  spread  with  great  rapidity, 
and  the  loss  of  life  was  appalling.  Many  sought  to 
save  themselves  by  leaping  from  windows  and  thus 
perished;  while  a  larger  number  were  lost  in  the 
flames.  Among  the  dead,  who  aggregated  nearly  a 
hundred,  were  George  W.  Smith,  the  Governor  of 
Virginia,  and  General  Benjamin  Botts,  Gordon's 


56      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

friend  and  law  preceptor,  who,  having  escaped  from 
the  burning  building,  re-entered  it  to  rescue  his  wife 
and  niece,  both  of  whom  perished  with  him. 

Soon  after  Gordon's  admission  to  the  bar,  and 
while  residing  in  Orange,  he  married,  on  the  2ist  day 
of  December,  1809,  Mary  Robinson  Rootes,  of 
"Federal  Hill,"  Fredericksburg,  a  daughter  of 
Thomas  Reade  Rootes,  in  whose  hospitable  mansion, 
which  still  remains  one  of  the  "show-places"  of  the 
old  town,  he  had  been  a  frequent  and  welcome  guest 
during  the  period  of  his  legal  apprenticeship  in  Gen- 
eral Botts'  office.  With  every  prospect  of  a  life  of 
happiness  in  her  union  to  one  of  sympathy  and  de- 
votion, whose  abilities,  associations  and  energies  even 
then  gave  promise  of  his  subsequent  distinguished 
career,  she  survived  the  marriage  but  little  more  than 
a  year,  and  died  in  January,  1811,  in  the  bloom  of 
lovely  young  womanhood.  Her  younger  sister, 
Sarah  Robinson  Rootes,  married  John  Addison 
Cobb,  who  moved  to  Georgia,  and  was  the  mother  of 
Howell  Cobb  and  Thomas  Reade  Rootes  Cobb ;  the 
former  of  whom  was  Speaker  of  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives,  Governor  of  Georgia, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  President  Buchanan, 
and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  Confederacy, 
and  a  major-general  in  the  Confederate  States  Army 
in  the  War  between  the  States ;  and  the  latter,  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  distinguished  lawyers  of  the 
Georgia  bar,  and  a  brigadier-general  in  the  Confed- 
erate Army,  who  was  killed  in  battle,  in  1862,  at 
Fredericksburg,  in  sight  of  the  old  house  of  "Federal 
Hill,"  in  which  his  mother  had  been  born  and  reared. 

In  January,  1813,  and  while  living  in  Charlottes- 
ville,  Gordon  married  his  second  wife,  who  was 
thenceforward  the  companion  of  his  own  long  life, 
and  who  survived  him  many  years,  dying  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century  at  the  advanced  age  of 
ninety-five.  She  was  Elizabeth  Lindsay,  the  daughter 
of  Colonel  Reuben  Lindsay,  a  wealthy  merchant 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       57 

and  planter  of  Albemarle,  a  colonel  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  colonies  during  the  period  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  a  personal  friend  and  intimate  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Monroe.  This  inti- 
macy and  friendship  was  a  long-continued  and  lasting 
one;  and  we  find  in  the  first  letter  written  by  Gor- 
don to  his  wife  from  the  Constitutional  Convention 
of  1829-30,  of  which  the  two  last  named  venerable 
ex-Presidents  were  members,  that  he  conveys  from 
them  to  Colonel  Lindsay  a  message  of  esteem.  "Tell 
your  father,"  he  writes,  "that  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr. 
Monroe  both  inquired  after  his  health;  and  that 
theirs  is  improving." 

Mrs.  Gordon  was  a  woman  of  great  force  of  char- 
acter, of  unusual  intelligence,  of  marked  cultivation 
and  literary  acquirements,  and  of  devoted  though 
unostentatious  piety.  At  the  time  of  their  marriage 
Gordon  had  already  attracted  the  attention  of  Mr. 
Jefferson,  who  had  then  retired  to  private  life  at 
Monticello,  after  a  nearly  continuous  public  service 
of  forty- four  years;  and  this  union  of  the  youthful 
lawyer  with  the  daughter  of  one  of  his  valued  friends 
served  to  bring  the  younger  man  and  the  older  into 
those  closer  relations  of  admiration  and  veneration 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  confidence  and  esteem  on 
the  other,  which  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to 
inducing  Gordon  at  a  later  period  to  become  a  candi- 
date for  the  General  Assembly,  when  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  most  actively  urging  before  the  legislature  the 
creation  of  one  of  the  noblest  monuments  of  his 
genius,  the  University  of  Virginia.  Elizabeth  Lind- 
say, in  her  girlhood  and  young  womanhood,  had 
formed  such  an  association  and  companionship  with 
Mr.  Jefferson's  daughters,  who  later  became  Mrs. 
Randolph  and  Mrs.  J.  W.  Eppes,  as  often  grows  up 
between  young  women  of  sympathetic  feelings  and 
congenial  tastes;  and  she  frequently  visited  the 
family  at  Monticello.  Among  the  many  interesting 
reminiscences  which  brightened  her  later  years  was 


58       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

one  which  she  regarded  as  very  illustrative  of  the 
systematic  utilization  of  time  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  She 
said  she  had  observed  that  there  was  always  a  vol- 
ume of  some  sort  on  the  mantel-shelf  of  the  dining- 
room  at  Monticello,  from  which,  whenever  she  en- 
tered the  room  at  meal  times,  she  almost  always 
found  him  reading,  while  he  stood  near  the  fire-place, 
waiting  for  family  and  guests  to  assemble.  The  cir- 
cumstance interested  her  so  much  that  she  ventured 
to  inquire  of  him  why  he  should  read  standing,  and 
at  such  brief  and  unusual  moments.  He  replied  that 
he  had  always  sought  to  cultivate  punctuality,  a  vir- 
tue that  did  not  consistently  characterize  so  large  a 
household  as  his;  and  that  by  economizing  the  wait- 
ing moments,  he  had  found  leisure  to  read,  as  she 
had  seen  him  reading,  a  very  large  number  of  books, 
the  perusal  of  which  he  might  otherwise  have  been 
forced  to  forego. 

Of  Mrs.  Gordon's  unselfish  devotion  to  her  hus- 
band during  their  long  union  perhaps  no  more  char- 
acteristic illustration  can  be  given  than  in  her  con- 
duct at  the  time  of  the  burning  of  their  dwelling- 
house  in  Albemarle,  during  his  absence  in  Washing- 
tion  in  the  session  of  the  last  Congress  of  which  he 
was  a  member.  She  was  aware  of  the  engrossing 
attention  which  the  public  business  demanded  of  him, 
for  he  was  then  especially  busy  with  his  Sub-Treasury 
plan;  and  she  wished  to  convey  to  him  with  as  little 
shock  as  possible  the  news  of  the  calamity  which  had 
thus  befallen  them.  She  wrote  February  15,  1835, 
from  her  father's  home  at  Springfield: 

"We  are  all  well.  I  heard  from  our  dear  little 
boys  since  I  wrote  last  to  you.  They  were  in  fine 
health  and  spirits.  These  are  blessings  to  be  thank- 
ful for;  and  now,  my  dear  husband,  when  I  tell  you 
your  manuscript  papers  and  books  are  safe,  I  hope 
you  will  not  suffer  yourself  to  be  much  agitated, 
when  I  add  that  our  house  is  burned.  Most  of  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       59 

furniture  of  the  lower  rooms  is  saved.  The  girls  lost 
all  their  clothing  of  every  description,  except  a  few 
trifles  and  what  they  had  on.  The  first  feeling  of 
my  heart  was  deep  and  fervent  gratitude  to  God  for 
having  preserved  us  from  the  accident  happening  in 
the  night.  I  shudder  to  think  what  sorrow  we  might 
then  have  had;  but  all  my  children  are  now  safe, 
and  I  am  perfectly  resigned  to  any  inconveniences  we 
may  have  to  encounter.  I  must  mention  to  you  that 
we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Provost,  the  young  gentle- 
man who  lives  at  Mr.  Rives',  for  the  saving  of  all 
that  was  saved.  He  called  at  our  house  that  day. 
Maria  Walker  was  with  me.  Dinner  was  ready  soon 
after.  While  at  dinner  in  the  cellar,  a  spark  caught 
the  roof  from  the  chimney.  No  one  observed  it, 
until  a  large  part  of  it  was  in  a  blaze,  and  the  wind 
blowing  violently.  All  the  servants  except  Harry 
lost  all  presence  of  mind;  and  Mr.  Provost  and 
himself  got  most  of  the  things  out.  I  asked  him  to 
save  your  papers  and  books  first;  and  went  in  myself 
and  seized  your  likeness,  when  I  found  Reuben  pull- 
ing me  out  of  the  house.  Reuben  and  William  be- 
haved like  heroes.  They  were  quite  collected  and 
helped  to  get  out  a  great  many  things.  All  our  neigh- 
bors crowded  to  our  assistance,  black  and  white, — 
but  before  any  men  got  there,  it  was  impossible  to 
enter  the  house. 

"You  know  how  often  I  have  told  you  that  my 
courage  always  rises  to  meet  the  occasion.  I  am  per- 
fectly composed.  You  must  think  of  us  as  on  a  visit 
to  our  dear  affectionate  mother  and  sister,  happy  to 
know  that  we  are  all  safe.  If  your  public  duties 
make  it  important  for  you  to  stay  from  us  till  the 
close  of  the  session,  do  so.  I  will  write  to  you 
every  post.  All  I  beg,  my  dear  husband,  is  that  you 
will  not  risk  your  health  or  safety  in  coming  while 
the  ice  is  on  the  river.  I  told  Cousin  Lewis  last  night 
that  I  should  write  to  cheer  you,  and  beg  you  not  to 
forsake  the  standard  of  old  Virginia's  principles  for 


60       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

a  paltry  fire.  There  is  not  a  man  in  the  district  that 
can  be  elected  to  support  them  now,  but  yourself; 
and  perhaps  it  will  be  an  effort  congenial  with  your 
spirit  to  rise  above  this  misfortune.  I  have  no  doubt 
or  fear  but  we  shall  all  be  comfortable  again.  The 
girls  beg  me  to  ask  you,  if  the  silks  are  not  purchased, 
not  to  get  them,  or  anything  for  them  but  plain  and 
neat  clothing,  such  as  gingham,  cambric,  calico.  If 
you  have  bought  plates  and  dishes,  perhaps  you 
would  better  sell  them  again. 

"Now  again  let  me  beg  of  you  to  take  care  of  your 
own  health,  and  don't  venture  on  the  ice.  When  I 
see  you  and  my  children  together  again  I  shall  be  the 
happiest  woman  in  the  world.  All  send  love  to  you 
more  than  I  can  express,  and  may  God  bless  and  pre- 
serve you. 

"Ever  your  affectionate  wife, 

"E.  L.  GORDON. 

"Don't  think  this  blotted  sheet  the  effect  of  agita- 
tion. I  write  with  a  bad  pen  and  my  hand  very  cold." 

His  courage  was  as  lofty  as  hers.  He  met  her 
message  with  a  serene  optimism  that  was  the  counter- 
part of  her  own : 

"Washington,  17  February,  1835. 

"My  dear  Wife:  I  have  just  received  your  letter, 
communicating  the  loss  of  our  dwelling-house.  I 
have  felt  a  good  deal  in  sympathy  with  you  and  my 
dear  children;  but,  thank  God,  you  are  all  safe. 
The  inconvenience  of  our  loss  is  more  than  its  value. 
The  house  was  an  indifferent  one,  and  intrinsically 
worth  but  little,  save  as  having  been  our  habitation 
through  many  years.  Its  destruction  produces  a 
mournful  feeling. 

"I  shall  procure  the  girls  some  new  clothing.  I 
have  determined  not  to  leave  my  post  here,  until  just 
before  the  adjournment.  Perhaps  I  may  be  at  March 
Court.  I  do  not  know  that  I  could  render  any 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       61 

peculiar  service  by  coming  sooner;  and  I  do  not  wish 
to  give  to  my  political  adversaries  any  subject  of 
criticism. 

"I  am  pleased  at  your  account  of  the  bearing  of 
Reuben  and  William  during  the  fire.  I  hope  that 
they  will  be  brave  and  virtuous  men. 

"I  communicated  our  misfortune  to  my  friend, 
Mr.  Robertson.  He  says  you  ought  to  be  pleased,  as 
I  shall  be  compelled  to  build  you  a  new  house.  You 
must  think  of  this.  I  am  afraid  that  you  will  crowd 
your  mother  very  much,  but  I  know  it  will  afford  her 
pleasure  to  shelter  you  under  the  circumstances. 

"I  hope  the  overseer  will  not  relax  his  efforts  for  a 
crop;  and  that  you  will  compose  yourself  as  much  as 
you  can.  I  shall  soon  be  with  you ;  and  perhaps  our 
accident  will  turn  out  a  blessing.  It  will  arouse  me  to 
greater  exertion  and  economy;  but  I  feel  it  sensibly 
to  have  a  houseless  family  at  so  inclement  a  season, 
and  to  be  absent  from  them. 

"It  is  not  in  my  nature  to  grieve  at  mere  pecuniary 
loss,  and  but  for  the  sufferings  of  you  and  my  dear 
children  I  should  be  very  composed.  My  health 
never  was  better.  The  mess,  and  the  family  of  Mrs. 
McDaniel  expressed  great  concern  for  our  loss. 
Mrs.  McDaniel  very  generously  offered  to  loan  me 
all  her  spare  money  to  assist  me  in  building.  The 
little  kindness  I  have  shown  to  her  and  her  family, 
in  helping  them  to  make  and  keep  their  mess,  has 
made  them  my  very  sincere  friends.  The  girls  send 
their  love  and  sympathy  for  you.  I  shall  get  them  to 
procure  for  M.  and  H.  several  new  dresses,  &c. 

"Affectionately  and  sincerely  yours, 

"WM.  F.  GORDON." 

The  house  thus  destroyed  in  February,  1835,  was 
not  without  an  interesting  history.  When  Gordon 
married  Mary  Rootes,  her  father,  who  was  a  man 
of  wealth,  had  purchased  for  the  young  couple  a  farm 
in  the  vicinity  of  Orange  Court  House,  the  village 


62       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

where  he  first  opened  a  law-office  for  practice;  and 
they  lived  on  their  farm  for  the  short  period  of  their 
married  life,  during  which  he  combined,  after  the 
custom  of  the  Virginia  country  lawyer  of  the  period, 
the  avocation  of  the  gentleman-farmer  with  the  voca- 
tion of  the  practising  lawyer.  Upon  the  early  death 
of  his  first  wife,  with  the  highmindedness  and  fine 
sense  of  right  which  always  characterized  him,  he 
re-conveyed  to  her  relatives  the  farm  which  had  thus 
come  to  him  from  her  father,  although  at  the  time 
he  was  possessed  of  little  worldly  gear,  and  well  un- 
derstood the  value  of  its  possession  in  beginning  the 
battle  of  life.  He  left  Orange  about  this  time,  and 
settled  at  Charlottesville.  Here  for  a  long  period, 
interrupted  after  his  second  marriage  by  a  tem- 
porary sojourn  at  Springfield,  the  home  of  his  father- 
in-law,  Colonel  Lindsay,  he  continued  to  reside,  and 
to  practice  his  profession,  meanwhile  "riding  the  cir- 
cuit" in  attendance  on  the  courts  held  in  Orange  and 
Louisa,  as  well  as  those  of  Albemarle,  until  in  1825, 
when  he  purchased  from  Nathaniel  Ragland  the 
property  on  the  south  side  of  the  Southwest  Moun- 
tains, near  the  town  of  Gordonsville,  the  destruction 
of  the  dwelling-house  on  which  has  been  described  in 
one  of  the  foregoing  letters. 

The  farm  and  dwelling  had  in  colonial  times  con- 
stituted "The  Glebe"  of  Fredericksville  parish,  in 
Albemarle.  Its  first  occupant  as  glebe  property  was 
the  Reverend  James  Maury,  for  whom,  says  Bishop 
Meade  in  "Old  Churches,  Ministers  and  Families  of 
Virginia,"  "soon  after  he  settled  in  the  parish  a  good 
glebe  of  four  hundred  acres  was  purchased,  near 
Captain  Lindsay's,  and  a  parsonage  built,  which  with 
the  outhouses  and  other  improvements,  seem  during 
his  life  to  have  been  well  attended  to  by  the  vestry." 
It  may  be  noted  that  in  1763,  when  the  parish  was 
divided  into  Trinity  in  Louisa  County,  and  Freder- 
icksville in  Albemarle,  by  an  act  of  Assembly,  the 
vestry  of  Fredericksville  was  ordered  to  pay  two 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       63 

hundred  pounds — half  the  price  of  their  glebe — to 
the  new  vestry  of  Trinity  for  the  purchase  of  a  glebe. 
Here  the  Reverend  James  Maury,  who  was  both 
rector  and  teacher  of  a  small  school,  was  succeeded  by 
his  son,  Mr.  Mathew  Maury,  who  continued  rector 
of  Fredericksville  parish  until  his  death  in  1808. 
The  Reverend  Mathew  Maury  also  supplemented 
his  meagre  salary  as  an  Episcopal  minister  by  teaching 
a  boys'  classical  school  at  "The  Glebe;"  and  educated 
here  a  large  number  of  the  sons  of  prominent  Vir- 
ginia families.  Among  his  father's  pupils  was  Mr. 
Jefferson,  who  attended  the  school  as  a  lad,  prior  to 
entering  the  ancient  college  of  William  and  Mary  in 
Virginia,  at  Williamsburg.  In  his  venerable  old  age, 
after  the  purchase  by  Gordon  of  "The  Glebe,"  as  a 
place  of  residence,  Mr.  Jefferson  said  jestingly  to  Mrs. 
Gordon,  "My  dear,  do  you  know  that  you  have  got 
the  Old  Boy's  room  in  your  house?"  and  in  response 
to  her  somewhat  astonished  query  of  his  meaning,  in- 
formed her  that  it  was  the  room  dedicated  to  the  oc- 
cupancy of  the  older  lads  of  Parson  Maury's  school. 
A  nephew  of  the  Reverend  Mathew,  and  grandson 
of  the  Reverend  James  Maury,  of  "The  Glebe,"  was 
Commodore  Mathew  Fontaine  Maury,  of  great  fame 
in  the  later  history  of  the  country  for  his  scientific  ca- 
reer, which  earned  for  him  the  unique  and  illustrious 
title  of  "Pathfinder  of  the  Seas." 

After  the  destruction  of  the  old  glebe  house  at 
Edgeworth  by  fire  in  1835,  Gordon  built  the  com- 
modious brick  mansion  now  standing  on  the  place, 
which  has  been  described  by  a  local  chronicler  as  a 
"handsome  brick  structure,  which  is  two  stories  in 
height,  with  double  rooms  and  a  wide  hall  on  each 
floor,  besides  a  large  cellar;"  and  of  which  the  fur- 
ther statement  is  made  that  "it  formed  at  that  date 
an  imposing  building,  being  much  superior  to  those 
of  his  neighbors,  and  its  spacious  apartments  became 
the  scene  of  a  refined  and  elegant  hospitality." 

Here  he  resided  up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 


CHAPTER  IV 

• 

"THE  RED  HILLS  OF  PIEDMONT" 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  relative  architectural 
merits  of  Gordon's  new  house  at  Edgeworth  and 
those  of  its  owner's  neighbors,  it  is  certain  that  at 
no  period  in  the  history  of  Colony  or  Commonwealth, 
and  in  no  neighborhood  characteristic  of  either,  could 
there  be  found  in  Virginia  a  society  more  cultivated, 
refined  and  genteel  than  that  composing  the  neigh- 
borhoods between  the  towns  of  Gordonsville  and 
Charlottesville,  along  the  base  of  the  Southwest 
range  of  mountains.  Beginning  at  the  former  place, 
then  but  a  small  country  village,  where  later  a  town 
of  some  size  grew  up  about  the  home  of  Nathaniel 
Gordon,  an  uncle  of  William  Fitzhugh  Gordon, 
from  whom  it  took  its  name,  situated  upon  a  section 
of  the  eighteen  hundred  acres  of  land  which  he 
owned  there,  and  traveling  westward,  one  came 
successively  to  "Hopewell,"  the  home  of  Gordon's 
uncle  by  marriage,  "the  Blind  Preacher"  Waddell, 
near  the  church  in  the  wilderness,  where  William 
Wirt  had  seen  him  lift  his  sightless  eyeballs  to  heaven, 
and  tell  with  words  of  inspired  eloquence  how 
"Socrates  died  like  a  philosopher,  but  Jesus  Christ 
like  a  God."  Near  by  were  "Springfield"  and  "The 
Meadows,"  the  homes  of  the  Lindsays,  of  which 
family  came  Gordon's  second  wife;  and  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood  was  "Logan,"  then  occupied 
by  Captain  Lewis  Walker,  of  the  distinguished 
family  whose  founder  in  Albemarle  County  was  Dr. 
Thomas  Walker,  famous  as  a  pioneer  and  explorer 
in  Kentucky,  and  a  diplomat  in  dealing  with  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  western  frontier.  Dr.  Walker 
was  commissary-general  of  the  troops  under  Wash- 
ington, who  accompanied  Braddock  on  his  ill-fated 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       65 

expedition,  and  was  present  at  his  defeat.  He  served 
in  the  House  of  Burgesses  and  on  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  and  was  President  of  the  commission  to  fix 
the  boundary  line  between  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina. He  was  Jefferson's  guardian.  By  his  mar- 
riage with  the  widow  of  Nicholas  Menwether  he 
acquired  "Castle-Hill,"  the  home,  at  a  subsequent 
date,  of  his  relative,  Mr.  William  C.  Rives.  One 
of  Dr.  Walker's  daughters,  Betsy,  married  the  Rev- 
erend Mathew  Maury,  who  taught  school  in  the  old 
Glebe  house  at  Edgeworth.  Another  daughter, 
Lucy,  was  the  wife  of  Dr.  George  Gilmer,  of  "Pen 
Park,"  and  the  mother  of  Mildred  Gilmer,  who  mar- 
ried William  Wirt,  the  author  of  "The  British  Spy," 
and  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States.  A 
grandson  of  Dr.  George  Gilmer  and  Lucy  Walker 
was  Governor  Thomas  Walker  Gilmer,  who  was 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  President  Tyler's  adminis- 
tration, and  was  killed  by  the  explosion  of  a  cannon 
on  the  steamer  Princeton.  During  Gordon's  life 
"Logan"  continued  the  home  of  Captain  Lewis  Wal- 
ker, who  was  Gordon's  brother-in-law,  he  having  mar- 
ried Maria  Lindsay,  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Gordon. 
One  of  their  sons  was  General  Reuben  Lindsay 
Walker,  of  the  Confederate  States  Army. 

West  of  "Edgeworth"  was  "Keswick,"  the  home 
of  the  Pages,  whose  history  from  colonial  days  to 
the  present  has  adorned  the  annals  of  Virginia. 
During  the  period  of  this  biography  its  owner  was 
Dr.  Mann  Page,  a  distinguished  physician  of  his 
day,  who  on  his  maternal  side  was  a  grandson  of 
that  Archibald  Cary,  known  as  "Old  Iron,"  of 
whom  it  has  been  said  by  the  historian  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Convention  of  1776,  that  when  the  scheme 
of  a  dictator  for  Virginia  was  talked  of  in  the  As- 
sembly at  Williamsburg,  and  it  was  alleged  that 
Patrick  Henry's  friends  favored  him  for  the  office, 
"Cary  met  Colonel  Syme,  the  half-brother  of  Henry 


66      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

in  the  lobby  of  the  house,  and  accosted  him:  Sir,  I 
am  told  that  your  brother  wishes  to  be  dictator. 
Tell  him  from  me,  that  the  day  of  his  appointment 
shall  be  the  day  of  his  death;  for  he  shall  find  my 
dagger  in  his  heart  before  the  sunset  of  that  day." 
Two  of  Dr.  Page's  grandsons,  James  Morris  Page, 
and  Thomas  Walker  Page,  are  now  prominent  pro- 
fessors in  the  University  of  Virginia,  the  former 
being  Dean  of  the  Collegiate  Department,  after  hav- 
ing filled  the  position  of  Chairman  of  the  Faculty. 

West  of  Keswick  and  nearer  the  mountain  was 
"Castle  Hill,"  during  Gordon's  life  the  home  of 
Mr.  William  Cabell  Rives.  Mr.  Rives  was  one  of 
the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  American  politics  in 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  was 
elected  to  Congress  in  1822  as  a  Democrat,  and 
after  serving  three  terms  was  sent  to  France  as 
Minister  from  the  United  States  by  President  Jack- 
son. He  succeeded  Senator  Tazewell  in  the  Senate 
in  1832,  where  he  was  known  as  a  "Conservative." 
He  resigned  in  1834,  and  was  again  elected  Senator 
in  1835,  holding  the  office  till  1845.  He  was  a 
prominent  figure  in  the  debates  on  the  expunging 
resolutions  and  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme;  and  was 
again  Minister  to  France  in  1849.  He  was  a  Pu^~ 
lie  speaker  and  debater  of  great  ability,  and  a  scholar 
of  varied  culture.  Among  his  other  literary  works 
was  an  elaborate  "Life  of  James  Madison." 

Mr.  Rives,  Dr.  Page,  and  Gordon  all  had  sons 
in  their  families;  and  under  an  arrangement  partici- 
pated in  by  the  three  houses,  a  teacher  was  employed 
to  whom  these  lads  went  to  school ;  and  who  taught, 
generally  in  turn,  at  Edgeworth,  Keswick  or  Castle 
Hill.  The  annalist  of  the  school  states  that  Mr. 
Provost,  whose  helpful  conduct  at  the  burning  of 
the  Edgeworth  house  is  described  in  Mrs.  Gordon's 
letter  to  her  husband,  taught  at  Castle  Hill  in 
1835-36,  and  that  he  "was  one  of  the  best  teachers." 
He  naively  adds  that  Mr.  Provost  "also  courted  all 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       67 

the  marriageable  girls  in  the  neighborhood."  These 
teachers  were  young  men,  who  were  graduates  of 
Princeton,  of  Yale,  of  Bowdoin,  of  Harvard,  and 
of  the  English  Universities.  George  Jeffrey,  of 
Cambridge  University,  taught  at  Keswick  in  1843- 
1844,  and  at  Edgeworth  the  following  session.  "It 
was  about  this  time,"  writes  the  annalist,  "that  F.  W. 
Meerbach,  a  famous  German  pianist,  gave  music- 
lessons  to  young  ladies  in  the  neighborhood.  Mr. 
Jeffrey  was  a  very  eccentric  man,  and  the  two  had 
a  quarrel,  resulting  in  Mr.  Jeffrey's  going  next  ses- 
sion to  Edgeworth."  Among  the  last  teachers  of 
the  neighborhood,  most  of  the  boys  having  in  the 
mean  time  grown  up,  was  Mr.  Calvin  S.  Maupin,  of 
North  Carolina,  who  taught  at  Edgeworth.  Of  him 
the  school-annalist  writes:  "Mr.  Maupin  was  not  a 
very  literary  man,  nor  did  he  much  enjoy  conversa- 
tion at  meals,  being  usually  blessed  with  a  ravenous 
appetite.  Thus,  while  General  Gordon  was  telling 
some  anecdote  about  President  Jackson,  while  a 
member  of  Congress,  Mr.  Maupin  interrupted  him 
in  the  middle  of  the  most  interesting  part  by  remark- 
ing, 'General,  you  got  my  bread!'  ' 

Next  to  Castle  Hill,  on  the  west,  was  "Kinloch," 
the  home  of  the  Meriwethers,  a  family  which  gave 
to  the  country  one  of  its  most  famous  explorers  in 
the  person  of  Meriwether  Lewis,  the  companion  of 
Clark  on  the  great  "Oregon  Trail."  Of  him  Mr. 
Jefferson  said:  "He  was  courage  undaunted,  pos- 
sessing a  firmness  of  purpose  which  nothing  but  im- 
possibilities could  divert  from  its  direction,  and  was 
intimate  with  Indian  character,  customs  and  princi- 
ples." Other  distinguished  members  of  this  family 
were  the  two  David  Meriwethers,  the  elder  of  whom 
went  to  Georgia,  where  he  attained  prominence  as 
a  legislator  and  Congressman;  and  who  was  ap- 
pointed in  1804  by  Mr.  Jefferson  a  commissioner 
to  treat  with  the  Creeks,  and  also  served  with  An- 
drew Jackson  in  making  a  treaty  with  the  Cherokees. 


68       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

The  younger  David  went  to  Kentucky,  where  he  be- 
came a  member  of  its  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1849,  later  Speaker  of  its  House  of  Representatives, 
and  succeeding  Henry  Clay  in  the  United  States 
Senate  in  1852,  was  afterwards  territorial  Governor 
of  New  Mexico. 

The  occupant  of  "Kinloch,"  in  Gordon's  time  was 
Dr.  Thomas  W.  Meriwether,  whose  wife  was  a 
granddaughter  of  Governor  Thomas  Nelson,  of 
Yorktown,  and  a  daughter  of  Hugh  Nelson,  son  of 
Thomas,  upon  whose  death,  in  1836,  Kinloch  came 
into  the  possession  of  Dr.  Meriwether.  Hugh  Nel- 
son was  among  the  most  distinguished  of  the  many 
distinguished  men  of  this  Piedmont  section.  He 
was  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Delegates  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  Virginia,  and  a  judge  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court.  He  was  elected  to  Congress,  where  he 
served  twelve  years,  when  he  resigned ;  and  was  then 
appointed  United  States  Minister  to  Spain. 

Nelson's  residence,  however,  was  not  at  Kinloch, 
which  was  built  by  Dr.  Meriwether,  but  at  "Belvoir," 
near  by.  Nelson  obtained  the  Belvoir  estate  by  his 
marriage  with  Eliza  Kinloch,  only  granddaughter  of 
John  Walker,  the  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Thomas  Walker, 
of  Castle  Hill.  John  Walker  of  Belvoir  served  as 
"an  extra-aide"  on  General  Washington's  staff  dur- 
ing the  Revolution;  and  in  1790  was  a  United  States 
Senator,  by  executive  appointment,  succeeding  Wil- 
liam Grayson.  Walker's  wife  was  Elizabeth  Moore, 
granddaughter  of  Alexander  Spotswood,  Colonial 
Governor  of  Virginia,  and  founder  of  the  "town" 
of  Germanna,  whose  description  by  William  Byrd, 
of  Westover,  has  been  given  in  a  former  chapter. 

Further  west,  in  the  direction  of  Charlottesville, 
stood  "Belmont,"  the  home  of  the  Everetts,  whose 
owner  in  the  early  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  Dr.  Charles  Everett,  a  graduate  in  1796  of  the 
medical  school  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
who  was  at  one  time  Gordon's  colleague  in  the  House 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       69 

of  Delegates,  later  serving  as  private  secretary  to 
President  James  Monroe. 

Near  Belmont  was  "Edgehill,"  the  residence  of  Jef- 
ferson's son-in-law,  Governor  Thomas  Mann  Ran- 
dolph. He  was  a  descendant  of  William  Randolph 
of  Turkey  Island,  the  progenitor  in  Virginia  of  many 
distinguished  men  of  the  name  who  have  adorned 
American  history  with  the  story  of  their  civic 
achievements ;  and  who  was  also  the  ancestor  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  himself,  and  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee. 
Governor  Randolph  was  educated  at  William  and 
Mary  College,  and  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Senate  in  1793 
And  1794,  and  a  representative  in  Congress  from 
1803  to  1807.  One  of  his  biographers  says  of  him: 
"During  the  War  of  1812  Mr.  Randolph's  ardent 
patriotism  was  conspicuous.  He  raised  a  command 
and  gallantly  participated  in  the  engagements  of  the 
seaboard,  and  was  soon  promoted  to  lieutenant- 
colonel,  and  placed  in  command  of  the  First  Light 
Corps."  He  was  Governor  of  Virginia  from  De- 
cember i,  1819,  to  December  I,  1822. 

Gordon  served  under  Colonel  Randolph  in  the 
War  of  1812,  first  as  a  private,  and  then  at  head- 
quarters. His  admiration  for  him  was  very 
great;  and  we  find  that  his  letters  of  the  period,  writ- 
ten home  to  his  wife,  contain  frequent  allusions  to 
him.  In  1819  he  was  Gordon's  colleague  in  the 
House  of  Delegates. 

"Colonel  Randolph's  election  to  be  Governor  of 
the  State,"  wrote  Gordon  from  Richmond,  under 
date  of  December  16,  1819,  "has  left  me  alone  in 
the  House  of  Delegates,  and  nothing  but  your  per- 
sonal indisposition  would  justify  my  leaving  the 
county  entirely  unrepresented.  Colonel  Randolph 
was  elected  with  great  honor  to  himself,  as  he  had 
two  competitors  who  were  respectable."  And  again, 
December  23,  1819:  "The  triumph  of  the  friends 
of  Colonel  Randolph  over  the  detractions  of  his 


70      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

enemies  was  indeed  pleasing."  After  having  served 
as  Governor  of  the  State,  Colonel  Randolph  was 
again  returned  to  the  House  of  Delegates  as  Gor- 
don's colleague  from  Albemarle  County.  On  De- 
cember 7,  1823,  the  latter  writes  to  Mrs.  Gordon: 
"I  am  boarding  at  the  Eagle,  where  there  are  nearly 
sixty  members  of  the  Assembly.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Loyall  are  near  neighbors.  Colonel  Randolph 
boards  only  a  little  distance  from  me.  He  has  lately 
returned  from  New  York,  and  is  delighted  with  the 
improvements  of  that  great  State.  I  am  much  pleased 
that  he  is  in  the  Legislature.  He  is  gaining  friends 
every  day  and  making  the  true  impression  which  his 
science,  intelligence  and  patriotism  should  always 
command;  and  but  for  that  rash  humor  which  his 
mother  gave  him  might  now  have  stood  foremost  in 
the  ranks  of  those  who,  wanting  nearly  every  quality 
which  he  possesses,  are  aspiring  to  the  highest  honors 
of  the  Confederacy.  I  feel  proud  that  he  is  my 
friend,  and  count  myself  the  better  for  never  for  one 
moment  having  neglected  or  abandoned  him."  An 
historic  illustration  of  this  fierce  temper,  to  which 
Gordon  alludes,  was  Thomas  Mann  Randolph's  at- 
tack on  his  kinsman,  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  in 
the  closing  scene  of  the  Ninth  Congress,  when 
imagining  that  the  latter  had  referred  to  him  in 
objectionable  language,  he  made  a  most  violent  and 
savage  speech  against  John  Randolph,  that  was  only 
prevented  by  the  intervention  of  friends  from  re- 
sulting in  a  physical  collision. 

Hard  by  Edgehill  was  "Shadwell,"  the  home  of 
Peter  Jefferson,  surveyor  and  map-maker  with 
Joshua  Fry,  and  the  birthplace  of  his  illustrious  son, 
Thomas  Jefferson;  while  across  the  river,  and  in 
sight,  stood  "Monticello,"  on  its  eminence  overlook- 
ing the  red-watered  river  of  the  Rivanna,  itself  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  great  political  leader  and 
philosopher. 

These  were  the  homes  of  Gordon's  neighbors,  and 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       71 

perhaps  all  of  them,  his  friends.  Not  far  from 
Monticello,  northwestward,  is  the  town  of  Char- 
lottesville,  near  which  lived  James  Monroe,  fourth 
President  of  the  United  States;  and  two  miles  fur- 
ther off  was  "Blenheim,"  the  seat  of  Andrew  Steven- 
son, Speaker  of  the  United  States  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives during  Gordon's  membership  of  that  body, 
and  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James  under  the 
administration  of  Jackson.  A  few  miles  away  is  the 
birthplace  and  burial-place  of  Thomas  Walker  Gil- 
mer,  Gordon's  contemporary  and  friend,  Governor 
of  Virginia,  Member  of  Congress,  and  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  killed  by  the  accident  on  the  steamer 
Princeton,  before  he  had  well  passed  his  fortieth 
year. 

"Within  but  a  little  distance,"  says  a  recent  writer, 
in  a  local  article  describing  the  distinguished  homes 
near  the  University  of  Virginia,  "between  the  home 
of  Monroe  and  the  burial-place  of  Gilmer  still  stands 
the  house  in  which  lived  Joshua  Fry,  the  colonel  of 
Washington's  regiment,  above  whose  burial-place 
that  great  man  carved  upon  a  tree,  that  beneath  its 
shelter  lay  'the  good,  the  just,  the  noble  Fry.' 

"A  little  further  off  to  the  west  stands  the  stately 
mansion  in  which  was  born  Edward  Coles,  Terri- 
torial, and  afterwards  first  Governor  of  Illinois.  Go 
directly  south  of  the  birth-place  of  Edward  Coles, 
and  you  come  to  the  birth-place,  now  only  a  memory 
of  Wilson  Cary  Nicholas,  member  or  Congress, 
United  States  Senator  from  Virginia,  and  Governor 
of  Virginia." 

Turning  eastward  again,  across  the  Southwest 
Mountains  from  Gordon's  house  at  Edgeworth,  was 
the  mansion  of  James  Barbour,  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, United  States  Senator  and  Minister  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James ;  while  a  mile  away  was  the  resi- 
dence of  his  brother,  Philip  Pendleton  Barbour,  mem- 
ber of  Congress,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  both 


72       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

of  whom  were  Gordon's  warm  personal  and  politi- 
cal friends,  and  the  latter  of  whom  he  hoped  and 
endeavored  in  the  Democratic  National  Convention 
at  Baltimore  in  1835,  to  nominate  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

"Come  back  now  to  Monticello,"  continues  the 
writer  above  quoted,  "and  look  across  the  river  to 
your  left,  and  just  beyond  the  bridge  which  spans  its 
red  waters.  On  the  hillside  sloping  towards  the  river 
was  born  George  Rogers  Clark,  the  intrepid  soldier, 
and  the  great  conquerer  of  the  Northwest  Territory. 
Follow  the  river  up  towards  its  source,  and  up  one  of 
its  smaller  northern  tributaries  a  few  miles,  and  in  a 
cabin  of  which  no  trace  now  remains,  was  born  Gen- 
eral Sumter,  the  hero  of  the  Revolution,  member  of 
Congress  and  Senator  from  South  Carolina. 

"A  few  miles  further  north,  and  you  come  to 
stately  'Montpelier,'  the  home  and  burial-place  of 
James  Madison  *  *  *  Go  up  the  railroad  a  few 
miles  towards  Washington,  and  a  monument  marks 
the  spot  where  stood  the  cabin  in  which  Zachary  Tay- 
lor, hero  of  the  Mexican  War,  and  President  of  the 
United  States,  was  born. 

"Come  back  again  to  Monticello,  and  stand  on  the 
western  slope  of  the  little  mountain,  and  look  up  the 
meanders  of  the  river.  About  four  miles  off  you  can 
see  a  large  white  house  in  a  grove,  the  home  of  Dr. 
George  Gilmer,  Revolutionary  patriot,  where  once 
lived  William  Wirt,  Attorney-General  of  the  United 
States,  jurist,  orator  and  author.  But  a  few  steps 
back  of  the  house  sleeps  his  first  wife — his  earliest 
love. 

"Look  down  into  Charlottesville.  About  the  cen- 
tre of  the  town  and  near  the  City  Hall,  was  born 
Nicholas  P.  Trist,  the  distinguished  statesman  of 
Kentucky,  who  together  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  drew 
the  celebrated  resolutions  of  '98  and  '99.  Follow 
the  main  street  of  the  little  city,  by  the  rotunda  of  the 
University,  and  passing  the  home  of  the  present 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       73 

Senator  of  Virginia,  Thomas  S.  Martin,  you  come  to 
Ivy,  a  pleasant  little  hamlet  seven  miles  away.  Half 
a  mile  to  the  north  of  this  village  you  come  to  the 
birth-place  of  Meriwether  Lewis,  who  with  a  brother 
of  George  Rogers  Clark,  made  his  way  to  'where 
rolls  the  Oregon,'  and  opened  the  way  of  the  world 
to  the  great  States  of  Washington  and  Oregon.  Of 
his  birth-place  and  home  only  a  chimney  remains." 

Here,  too,  amid  the  foothills  of  this  Piedmont 
region,  that  bear  the  peculiar  physical  characteristic 
of  a  vivid  red  soil,  lived  Dabney  Carr,  patriot  and 
eloquent  orator,  who  moved  the  resolutions  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  in  1773  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Committee  of  Correspondence.  He 
married  Jefferson's  sister;  and  their  son,  the  younger 
Dabney  Carr,  was  chancellor  of  the  Winchester  Dis- 
trict of  Virginia  for  thirteen  years,  and  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  of  the  State  from  1824 
to  1837. 

The  roster  of  these  Piedmontese  would  lack  com- 
pleteness if  it  failed  to  include  the  name  of  Francis 
Walker  Gilmer,  of  Albemarle,  to  whom  was  en- 
trusted by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1824  the  important  task 
of  going  abroad  and  inducing  the  acceptance  by  dis- 
tinguished foreign  scholars  of  professorships  in  the 
new  University  of  Virginia.  The  correspondence  of 
Jefferson  and  Gilmer  still  exists  in  manuscript  form, 
bound  in  a  thick  volume,  which  also  contains  letters 
of  advice  and  assistance  from  Dugald  Stewart,  Ben- 
jamin Rush,  Lord  Brougham,  Lord  Teignmouth, 
Dr.  Samuel  Parr,  Lord  Forbes,  Henry  Drury  of 
Harrow,  Prof.  John  Leslie  of  Edinburgh,  George 
Ticknor,  Dupont  de  Nemours,  William  Wirt,  and 
many  others.  Gilmer  was  a  man  of  unusual  qualities 
of  mind,  who  died  before  the  meridian  of  achieve- 
ment, but  left  upon  his  time  the  unmistakable  mark 
of  his  genius.  "Among  those  who  have  shown  me 
favor,"  wrote  of  him  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke, 


74      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"I  set  high  value  upon  the  attachment  of  Frank  Gil- 
mer." 

In  the  town  of  Charlottesville,  though  of  a  younger 
generation  than  Gordon,  lived  his  son-in-law,  Wil- 
liam J.  Robertson,  an  eminent  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia,  who  was  the  recog- 
nized leader  of  the  bar  of  the  State  in  his  generation 
and  who,  among  other  notable  cases  in  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  was  counsel  in  the  famous 
suit  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee's  children  to  recover 
Arlington  from  the  United  States  Government;  while 
in  the  nearby  Piedmont  county  of  Culpeper  resided 
in  the  period  of  his  earlier  practice  William  Green, 
believed  by  his  American  contemporaries  and  by 
leading  members  of  the  English  bar  to  be  the  most 
learned  lawyer  of  the  Western  world;  and  who, 
though  himself  a  slave-owner  and  regarding  John 
Brown  as  a  malefactor  and  assassin,  represented  him 
in  his  petition  for  a  writ  of  error  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia  in  1861,  because  he 
thought  that  a  knowledge  of  his  client's  guilt  does 
not  warrant  a  lawyer  to  refuse  his  case.  To  this 
petition,  which  was  rejected,  Green  said  in  a  letter 
to  Governor  John  A.  Andrew  of  Massachusetts,  that 
he  gave  such  ability  and  effort  as  he  was  able,  "as  if 
he  had  believed  Brown  innocent;"  and  Mr.  Randolph 
Tucker  has  emphasized  Green's  statement  by  the  as- 
sertion that  the  petition  contained  all  the  law  of 
treason  known  to  the  English-speaking  world. 

A  large  majority  of  these  Piedmontese,  whose 
careers  have  been  briefly  summarized  in  this  chapter, 
were  Gordon's  contemporaries;  and  very  many  of 
them  were  his  personal  friends  and  intimates.  They 
all,  whether  of  an  earlier  or  later  time,  are  illustra- 
tive of  the  character  and  kind  of  people  who  for  so 
long  a  period  chose  him  as  their  representative  in 
the  legislative  halls  of  the  commonwealth  and  nation. 

It  was  no  idle  compliment  which  John  Randolph 
of  Roanoke  paid  to  Philip  Pendleton  Barbour,  upon 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       75 

the  occasion  of  the  latter's  maiden  speech  in  Con- 
gress, when  he  said,  "Sir,  I  have  listened  to  you; 
and  I  see  that  the  Red  Hills  of  Piedmont  arc  still 
producing  great  men." 


CHAPTER  V 

IN  THE  WAR  OF   I  8  1 2 

Soon  after  Gordon  moved  from  Orange  County 
to  Charlottesville  the  difficulties  with  England  grow- 
ing out  of  her  claim  to  the  right  of  search,  during 
her  war  with  France,  became  acute.  In  1809  Mr. 
Jetterson  had  finished  his  second  term  as  President, 
and  returned  to  Monticello,  where  his  personal  as- 
sociation with  and  influence  over  the  young  men 
in  Charlottesville  and  Albemarle  were  dominating. 
His  neighbor  and  friend,  Mr.  Madison,  was  still 
in  the  White  House  at  Washington  when  war  loomed 
on  the  horizon.  Jefferson  himself  saw  it  coming  in 
the  spring  of  1812,  as  Governor  Barbour  had  indi- 
cated it  in  his  letter  to  Gordon  of  January  2ist,  of 
that  year.  "No  doubt  seems  to  be  entertained  here," 
he  wrote  from  Richmond,  "but  that  war  is  inevi- 
table." Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to  a  friend  in  England: 
"Our  two  countries  are  to  be  at  war,  but  not  you 
and  I.  And  why  should  our  two  countries  be  at 
war,  when  by  peace  we  can  be  so  much  more  useful 
to  one  another?  Surely  the  world  will  acquit  our 
government  from  having  sought  it.  Never  before 
has  there  been  an  instance  of  a  nation  bearing  so 
much  as  we  have  borne." 

Both  Jefferson  and  Madison  had  carried  endur- 
ance to  the  limit;  but  the  Republican  party  to  which 
they  belonged  was  so  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of 
hostilities  that  the  President  was  compelled  to  re- 
commend a  declaration.  In  June,  1812,  Congress 
passed  an  act  declaring  the  existence  of  a  state  of 
war  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
and  the  President  issued  his  proclamation  that  war 
had  begun.  New  England  opposed  the  war,  and 
threatened  secession;  and  when  the  administration, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       77 

in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  Con- 
gress, called  for  militia,  the  governors  of  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  refused  to  obey; 
and  the  courts  of  their  several  States  sustained  them 
on  the  ground  that  the  act  was  unconstitutional. 
Disasters  to  the  American  arms  on  land,  and  vic- 
tories at  sea,  were  the  earliest  fruits  of  the  struggle, 
which  until  May,  1813,  raged  at  a  distance  from 
the  territory  and  shores  of  Virginia.  Early  in  that 
month,  however,  Admiral  Cockburn,  with  a  British 
fleet,  entered  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  committed  various 
depredations  in  Maryland.  In  August  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  a  detachment  of  four  thousand  British 
soldiers  under  General  Ross  marched  fifty  miles 
across  country  to  Washington,  from  the  fleet,  and 
captured  the  city.  The  President  and  his  Cabinet 
sought  safety  in  flight,  while  the  British  soldiers  ate 
the  dinner  that  had  been  prepared  and  drank  "the 
ale,  cider  and  wine"  that  had  been  "placed  in  the 
coolers"  for  the  entertainment  of  the  members  of 
"the  Cabinet,  military  gentlemen  and  strangers" 
whom  the  President  had  invited  to  dine  with  him 
that  day.  Admiral  Cockburn  entered  the  hall  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  at  the  Capitol,  at  the  head 
of  a  band  of  followers,  and  seating  himself  in  the 
Speaker's  chair,  put  them  the  question:  "Shall  this 
harbor  of  Yankee  democracy  be  burned?  All  for 
it  will  say  'Aye.'  '  The  ayes  had  it;  and  the  Capitol 
and  other  public  buildings  in  Washington  were  de- 
stroyed by  incendiary  fire. 

In  the  mean  time,  and  before  the  burning  of  the 
Capitol,  great  excitement  had  been  precipitated  in 
Virginia  by  the  attack  on  Craney  Island,  near  Nor- 
folk, by  the  British,  and  its  successful  defense  by  the 
Americans;  and  later  the  capture  of  the  town  of 
Hampton. 

James  Barbour,  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  assem- 
bled the  citizen  soldiery  in  the  field.  Gordon,  with 
other  kindred  spirits,  volunteered.  On  the  3ist  of 


78       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

July,  1814,  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  then  at  her  father's 
house,  from  Charlottesville : 

"On  my  arrival  here  I  was  informed  that  Colonel 
Yancey,  who  will  command  us,  was  without  a  clerk, 
and  hearing  he  would  not  be  here  for  a  day  or  two, 
I  procured  a  furlough  from  my  officer,  and  rode  im- 
mediately to  see  the  Colonel,  who  has  appointed  me 
clerk  to  the  regiment.  I  shall  be  a  member  of  the 
Colonel's  family,  along  with  Dabney  Carr,  Tucker 
Coles,  and  several  other  genteel  persons.  The  troops 
will  march  from  this  place  to-day." 

On  the  3Oth  of  August  he  announced  the  arrival 
of  his  regiment,  under  Colonel  Charles  Yancey,  in 
Richmond;  and  stated  that  he  had  reported  to  the 
Governor,  "who  has  taken  the  field,  and  pitched 
his  tent  in  camp" — a  characteristic  action  on  the  part 
of  the  Chief  Executive  of  the  Commonwealth,  who, 
in  this  contest,  "is  said  to  have  pledged  his  personal 
means  to  sustain  the  credit  of  his  State,  and  by  his 
vigilant  and  able  conduct  of  affairs  nobly  maintained 
the  honor  of  Virginia,  who  acted  well  her  part  in  this 
second  struggle  with  Old  England." 

"We  were  ordered  to  report  ourselves,"  continued 
Gordon  in  his  letter,  "to  the  adjutant-general  this 
morning,  which  we  shall  presently  do.  The  imme- 
diate apprehension  for  this  place  will  be  lessened 
by  the  arrival  of  a  number  of  volunteer  and  other 
troops,  who  are  pouring  into  the  city  from  every 
direction.  We  have  heard  that  the  enemy  have 
evacuated  Washington,  and  there  is  nothing  but 
vague  rumor  as  to  any  other  of  their  movements. 
Great  exertions  are  making  to  put  Virginia  in  an 
'armor  of  defence;'  and  I  cannot  suffer  myself  for 
a  moment  to  doubt  the  result  and  happy  consequence 
of  such  efforts.  Our  immediate  destination  we  shall 
know  in  a  few  hours.  I  am  informed  from  good  au- 
thority that  I  shall  receive  a  very  pretty  appointment 
on  the  general  staff,  which  will  enable  me  probably 
to  render  more  service  to  the  republic,  with  more 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       79 

advantage  to  myself.  *  *  *  Tell  your  father  that 
I  believe  all  the  property  here,  that  can  be  transported 
to  places  of  safety,  has  been  sent  away." 

A  few  days  thereafter,  he  writes  from  "Camp 
Warronigh"  near  West  Point,  on  the  York  River: 

"Colonel  Randolph's  detachment  arrived  at  this 
present  encampment  two  days  since.  The  corps  are 
all  high  in  spirits,  and  anxious  to  encounter  the 
enemy.  He  has  under  his  command  the  finest  of  the 
youth  of  Virginia.  Our  wary  enemy  I  hear  will  not 
give  us  an  opportunity  of  obliterating  the  disgrace 
at  Washington.  He  will  probably  wait  until  the 
ardor  of  the  moment  shall  have  passed  away  before 
any  attempt  is  made  on  Virginia.  Our  Colonel  has 
all  his  chivalry  about  him.  Major  David  Watson 
of  Louisa  is  with  us.  I  am  in  a  very  genteel  mess, 
and  am  as  contented  as  I  can  be  away  from  my 
family. 

"There  is  a  novelty  in  a  camp  life  which  is  not 
unpleasant  to  me,  though  every  moment  of  reflec- 
tion teaches  me  the  value  of  the  happiness  I  have 
left  behind  me.  But  when  I  see  thousands  of  others 
who  have  made  even  greater  sacrifices  than  myself, 
I  feel  that  I  should  be  degraded  in  any  other  char- 
acter than  that  of  a  soldier  for  the  term.  I  have 
declined  several  little  appointments  which  would 
have  lightened  the  burdens  of  my  condition;  but  I 
have  refused  to  leave  the  ranks  of  my  country,  where 
I  can  share  the  difficulties  of  the  time.  Our  friend, 
James  Ragland,  will  be  appointed  adjutant  to  the 
cavalry  under  Colonel  Randolph;  and  he  insists  on 
my  aiding  him,  which  I  shall  consent  to  do. 

"There  has  been  considerable  difficulty  in  procur- 
ing provisions,  &c.,  for  the  numerous  troops  and 
companies  that  are  and  will  be  in  service.  There  are 
many  of  my  friends  and  acquaintances  in  camp. 
Francis  Gilmer  is  with  us,  acting  as  secretary  to 
Major  Watson,  I  have  determined  to  ask  for  no 


8o      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

appointment  whatever.  If  my  merits  do  not  point 
me  out,  I  shall  continue  a  private." 

Early  in  September  he  wrote  from  Richmond  that 
he  and  his  wife's  kinsman,  William  Lindsay,  had 
joined  Captain  Carr's  troop  of  cavalry,  "which  with 
the  Richmond  Blues,  and  several  other  of  the  finest 
companies  here,  will  form  an  elite  corps  under  the 
immediate  command  of  Colonel  Randolph.  *  *  * 
There  are  a  great  quantity  of  troops  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  the  choice  spirits  of  Virginia,  flock- 
ing to  her  standard.  I  have  until  this  morning  been 
at  Headquarters,  writing  constantly.  I  was  much 
solicited  to  remain  in  the  department  of  the  adju- 
tant-general, but  I  preferred  the  situation  of  a  pri- 
vate with  Colonel  Randolph. 

"I  have  not  seen  Mr.  Rutherford's  family,  or  him- 
self. Your  father  has  no  doubt  heard  of  the  dis- 
graceful capitulation  of  Alexandria.  Thank  God, 
it  is  not  a  part  of  Virginia !  Mr.  Rutherford  has 
moved  all  his  tobacco  up  to  his  own  lot.  The  troops 
are  in  the  finest  spirits  you  can  imagine.  The  spirit 
of  the  people  will  erase  the  disgrace  of  the  Govern- 
ment. We  want  talents  everywhere,  patriotism  is 
general.  Our  patriotic  Governor  is  using  all  his 
exertions  to  sustain  the  high  character  of  Virginia. 

"I  have  just  got  a  sword;  and  really  I  have 
reminded  myself  of  the  humorous  story  in  the  'Spec- 
tator' of  the  gentleman  who  could  scarcely  keep  his 
sword  from  between  his  legs.  I  shall  be  shortly  a 
more  accomplished  soldier." 

Again,  from  Camp  Warronigh,  he  wrote,  on  Sep- 
tember 14,  1814: 

"I  fear  we  shall  have  no  opportunity  of  meeting 
the  enemy  on  our  shores.  This  whole  corps  would 
meet  them  with  a  firmness  and  enthusiasm  inspired 
by  the  occasion,  and  by  the  devotion  of  every 
man  in  it  to  our  heroic  commander.  It  is 
really  enviable  to  see  to  what  a  degree  of  affection 
and  attachment  he  has  already  bound  all  to  him. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       81 

"The  only  articles  I  purchased  in  Richmond  were 
a  flannel  coat  and  a  pair  of  nankeen  pantaloons.  If 
my  Virginia  cloth  is  ready,  you  would  have  an  op- 
portunity in  fifteen  days  from  the  present  date  of 
sending  me  down  any  articles  you  may  make  by  Mr. 
Arthur  Clayton  of  Louisa,  who  has  a  furlough,  and 
will  return  in  that  time.  I  am,  however,  not  in  want 
of  clothes,  and  do  not  affect  any  of  the  parade  of 
a  soldier.  If  I  had  time  and  seclusion,  I  could 
interest  you  somewhat  with  a  description  of  this  coun- 
try ;  but  the  frequent  interruptions  of  business  forbid. 
We  have  heard  that  some  of  the  enemy's  ships  have 
left  the  Bay,  destination  unknown." 

William  Wirt  was  one  of  the  officers  at  Camp 
Warronigh,  and  commanded  an  artillery  company. 
In  a  letter  written  by  him  in  September,  1814,  he 
says,  "Frank  Gilmer,  Jefferson  Randolph,  the  Carrs 
and  others,  have  got  tired  waiting  for  the  British, 
and  gone  home." 

No  other  of  Gordon's  letters  home  during  this 
period  have  been  preserved,  until  that  of  December 
23,  1814,  written  from  Camp  Carter,  on  the 
Chickahominy  River,  where  the  Virginia  army, 
theretofore  commanded  by  Governor  Barbour,  in 
person,  had  now  gone  into  winter  quarters.  The 
State  troops  while  at  Camp  Carter,  and  at  Camp 
Holly  on  the  Chickahominy,  were  commanded  by 
General  John  Hartwell  Cocke,  who  was  later  a  con- 
spicuous.figure  in  the  history  of  Virginia  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  and  as  Vice-President  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
settling  the  slavery  question  by  the  colonization  of 
the  negroes  of  the  South  in  Africa. 

"The  day  after  I  wrote  to  you,"  Gordon  wrote, 
under  the  foregoing  date,  to  Mrs.  Gordon,  at  Spring- 
field, "I  was  requested  by  General  Cocke,  through 


82       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

his  aide,  Mr.  Rives,  to  act  as  his  Secretary,  to  which 
I  consented,  as  it  would  render  my  situation  more 
comfortable  and  pleasing.  I  have  been  at  camp 
several  days  waiting  for  the  General,  who  is  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Williamsburg.  He  is  expected 
here  to-day. 

"You  will  be  quite  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  an 
encampment,  which  a  few  weeks  since  was  in  wood, 
furnishes  accommodation  for  upwards  of  two  thou- 
sand men,  as  warm  as  your  mother's  chamber,  the 
streets  of  which  are  as  smooth  and  dry  as  the  best 
turnpike  road.  The  cabins  are  all  neat  and  warm. 
In  the  absence  of  General  Cocke,  I  have  slept  in  the 
quarters  of  Lieutenant  Nicholas. 

"I  find  General  Cocke  universally  respected  and 
looked  up  to  by  the  officers  under  his  command — a 
striking  instance  of  the  triumph  of  talents  and  per- 
severance in  a  cause  of  duty  over  the  momentary 
prejudices  and  disgusts  of  others. 

"If  Gilmer  has  returned,  present  my  warm  re- 
gards to  him,  and  tell  him  to  write  to  me,  or  come 
down  to  see  me,  if  he  can  spare  time." 

In  the  interval  between  the  last  letter,  and  that 
which  follows,  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  had  been 
fought.  On  the  8th  of  January,  1815,  General  An- 
drew Jackson,  with  seven  thousand  men,  for  the 
most  part  raw  militia  brought  hastily  together,  had 
met  and  repulsed  the  attack  of  eight  thousand  ex- 
perienced and  highly  trained  veterans,  many  of  whom 
had  seen  service  in  the  European  wars.  The  Ameri- 
can loss  had  been  only  seventy-one  men.  The 
British  loss  was  two  thousand,  including  their  cour- 
ageous leader,  General  Pakenham.  It  was  a  glorious 
triumph  for  the  citizen  soldiery,  and  afforded  an 
ample  vindication  of  the  views  of  the  republicans  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  school,  who  were  opposed  to  a  large 
standing  army,  and  believed  that  citizen  troops 
properly  organized  by  the  States  constituted  a  suffi- 
cient defense  in  time  of  war. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       83 

On  February  2,  1815,  Gordon  wrote  from  Rich- 
mond, whither  he  had  accompanied  General  Cocke : 

"The  intelligence  that  General  Jackson  had  suc- 
cessfully resisted  the  enemy  at  New  Orleans  has 
given  great  joy,  which  has  been  somewhat  damped 
by  our  loss  of  the  President  frigate,  commanded  by 
the  gallant  Decatur.  We  are  ignorant  of  the  par- 
ticulars, but  we  know  that  she  had  to  contend  with 
several  vessels  larger  than  she  was,  after  having 
been  crippled  in  a  previous  action,  so  there  is  no  honor 
gone.  We  have  heard  nothing  from  our  Commis- 
sioners and  of  the  state  of  Europe. 

"But  I  am  writing  to  you  a  letter  of  politics.  Gen- 
eral Cocke  is  so  much  pleased  with  my  'home-spun' 
that  he  presents  you  with  his  compliments,  and  begs 
you  will  accept  as  much  merino  wool  as  will  make 
a  suit  of  clothes.  I  have  just  heard  that  the  Presi- 
dent has  returned  the  Bank-bill  to  the  Senate  with 
objections.  We  have  just  learned  that  General  Jack- 
son has  killed  and  taken  fifteen  hundred  of  the  enemy, 
among  whom  are  three  of  their  generals.  This  is 
glorious !" 

The  battle  of  New  Orleans  had  been  fought  and 
won  by  the  Americans  after  the  official  end  of  the 
war.  The  Treaty  of  Ghent  had  been  concluded,  and 
signed  on  Christmas  day  of  1814,  by  the  Commis- 
sioners of  the  United  States,  Albert  Gallatin,  Henry 
Clay  and  John  Quincy  Adams  on  the  one  side,  and 
those  of  Great  Britain  on  the  other;  but  as  at  that 
time  it  took  six  weeks  or  more  for  a  sailing  vessel 
to  cross  the  Atlantic,  news  of  the  peace  did  not  reach 
America  until  about  the.  middle  of  February. 

In  the  mean  time,  Gordon  wrote  to  his  wife  from 
Camp  Carter  on  the  loth  day  of  February,  1815: 

"I  hope  you  will  not  be  unhappy  at  any  of  the 
rumors  of  this  epidemic  which  prevails  in  the  coun- 


84      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

try.  I  have  no  apprehension  from  it  myself;  and 
indeed  the  cases  which  have  occurred  in  this  vici- 
nity are  now  of  a  moderate  character  and  perfectly 
manageable  by  physicians;  add  to  which  that  few 
or  no  persons  are  subject  to  it  except  those  who 
have  been  exposed  to  violent  cold  weather,  and 
those  who  are  not  clothed  warmly.  The  physicans 
say  there  is  nothing  contagious  in  it. 

"In  a  few  days  I  shall  set  out  with  General  Cocke 
for  Williamsburg,  and  shall  visit  York,  where  I  ex- 
pect to  have  many  emotions  awakened  calculated  to 
make  me  more  patriotic.  If  there  is  a  post  day,  I 
will  write  you  from  that  place.  From  my  retrospect 
of  an  era  in  our  revolutionary  fortunes  my  mind 
moves  with  rapidity  towards  the  theatre  of  the  glory 
of  General  Jackson.  The  papers  will  tell  you  how 
he  has  fought  and  how  he  has  conquered;  and  you 
will  say  with  me  that  we  are  not  a  degenerate  people, 
when  we  see  the  conquerors  of  the  Old  World,  of 
disciplined  valor  and  renown  in  arms,  bowing  before 
the  impetuous  ardor  of  a  free  and  unconquerable 
militia.  Old  England  will  stand  amazed,  and  the 
European  world  will  discredit  the  great  defence 
which  our  troops  have  made." 

There  were  well-informed  people  in  Great 
Britain,  however,  in  the  time  of  this  episode,  as  in 
that  of  the  Revolution,  who  had  deprecated  the  war, 
and  to  whom  the  news  of  the  victory  won  by  the 
civilian  soldiers  of  Jackson  over  Pakenham's  trained 
regulars  did  not  come  as  a  total  surprise.  The  Lon- 
don Statesman  of  March  30,  1813,  had  said: 

"America  must  be  excepted  from  the  expression 
'All  our  enemies.'  She  is  of  us,  and  of  us  improved. 
We  are  neither  ashamed  nor  afraid  to  say  so.  We 
knew  it  before,  and  knowing  so  much,  we  have  uni- 
formly deprecated  going  to  war  with  her.  The 
Americans  will  be  the  most  terrible  warriors  we  have 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON       85 

had  to  contend  with.    We  have,  like  fools,  despised 
them  as  a  power  in  arms." 

On  the  1 8th  of  February,  1815,  peace  was  pro- 
claimed by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
was  received  throughout  Virginia  with  manifesta- 
tions of  joy.  Through  the  country  sections  and  the 
towns  alike  the  people  exhibited  their  delight  by 
burning  bonfires  and  illuminating  their  houses.  They 
were  glad  to  be  rid  of  what  they  regarded  as  in  no 
small  measure  the  cause  of  the  "hard  times"  that 
existed;  for  the  National  Government  had  become 
almost  bankrupt,  and  outside  of  New  England 
nearly  every  bank  had  suspended  specie  payments, 
and  the  circulating  medium  had  become  "script"  is- 
sued by  towns,  notes  of  "wildcat"  banks,  and  the 
"paper"  of  private  individuals. 

Gordon's  last  letter  to  his  wife  from  camp  was 
written  on  the  day  after  the  President's  proclama- 
tion of  peace. 

"I  write  by  our  friend,  George  Lindsay,  from  a 
fear  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to  get  off  before  he 
reaches  the  neighborhood,  being  obliged  to  remain 
with  General  Cocke  a  few  days  whilst  his  brigade  is 
discharging.  You  will  probably  expect,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  peace  to  which  our  country  is  restored, 
that  I  should  be  earlier  at  home  than  I  can  be  con- 
sistently with  my  duty  and  station.  It  gives  me  great 
joy  to  congratulate  you  on  the  return  of  peace  to  our 
happy  country." 

What  Gordon  called  "a  free  and  unconquerable 
militia"  was  the  reliance  for  defense  in  time  of  war 
of  the  republicans  of  the  strict-construction  school. 
As  the  French  King  denominated  his  cannon,  on 
which  he  had  caused  the  legend  to  be  inscribed 
"Ultima  ratio  regum,"  so  the  JefLrsonian  demo- 
cracy of  the  period  regarded  standing  armies  and 
military  equipment,  under  the  organization  and  con- 


86      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

trol  of  the  central  government,  as  the  final  resort  of 
despotism. 

In  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  raw  militia  re- 
cruited from  the  Northern  States  had  not  been  a 
success,  whether  from  natural  inaptitude  to  the  use 
of  arms,  or  from  lack  of  military  skill;  and  this  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  they  were  "embattled  farmers" 
who  at  Lexington,  Massachusetts,  "fired  the  shot 
heard  'round  the  world."  It  was  only  in  the  South 
that  soldiers,  like  Morgan's  riflemen,  who  could  put 
a  rifle  bullet  through  a  wild  turkey's  head  at  a  dis- 
tance of  a  hundred  yards,  or  Lee's  legionaries,  who 
as  the  sons  of  planters  had  grown  up  on  horseback, 
with  guns  in  their  hands,  and  were  soldiers  by  in- 
stinct and  custom,  redeemed  the  faults  of  the  North- 
ern militia.  The  citizen  soldiery  have  been  sneered 
at  by  Federalist  writers  from  the  foundation  of  the 
Government;  but  throughout  the  story  of  the  coun- 
try the  militia  of  the  South  have  shown  themselves 
adequate  to  its  defense,  from  Saratoga,  where  Mor- 
gan's men  won  the  battle,  down  through  the  Cow- 
pens,  the  pivotal  and  "most  astonishing  battle  of  the 
Revolution,"  to  New  Orleans,  through  Chapultepec 
and  Cherubusco  and  Monterey  to  the  first  Manas- 
sas  in  1861,  and  the  earlier  battles  of  the  Con- 
federacy. 

Virginia,  from  the  Revolutionary  period,  had 
maintained  an  elaborate  system  of  local  militia — a 
system  in  which  many  of  her  most  distinguished 
citizens  took  a  practical  and  abiding  interest;  and 
under  which  a  host  of  the  very  flower  of  her  youth 
esteemed  it  an  honor  to  serve  as  privates  in  the  ranks. 
This  elaborate  scheme  of  "a  well-regulated  militia," 
as  it  is  named  in  the  act  of  Assembly,  was  early 
recognized  by  statute  as  constituting  "the  great  de- 
fence of  a  free  people;"  and  if  the  "Virginia  colonel" 
has  been  a  perennial  and  lasting  product  of  the  soil 
of  the  Commonwealth,  he  has  been  always  a  legiti- 
mate one,  who  in  periods  of  necessity  has  not  failed 


8? 

to  justify  his  existence  to  his  country.  Presidents, 
Governors,  Supreme  Court  Judges,  Congressman^ 
leading  lawyers  and  professional  men,  have,  at 
various  periods  in  the  history  of  the  State,  deemed 
it  honorable  to  serve  and  hold  office  in  the  State 
military  organization.  A  roll  of  the  Virginians  who, 
since  Yorktown,  through  the  period  ending  with  the 
secession  of  the  Commonwealth  in  1861,  have  been 
members  of  the  militia,  would  contain  the  names 
of  a  very  large  proportion  of  those  whose  histories 
have  adorned  the  civic  life  of  the  State  and  of  the 
nation. 

The  counties  of  the  State,  under  this  military  sys- 
tem, were  divided  by  law  into  twenty  brigades  and 
four  divisions.  A  brigadier-general  was  elected  by 
joint  ballot  of  the  two  houses  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, for  each  brigade,  who  was  required  to  reside 
within  the  limits  of  his  command.  There  was  a 
similar  method  of  election  of  a  major-general  for 
each  of  the  four  divisions,  and  these  general  officers 
and  their  subordinate  commissioned  officers  received 
commissions  at  the  hands  of  the  Governor,  who  was 
commander-in-chief  by  virtue  of  his  office.  The  rank 
and  file  were  organized  into  companies,  regiments, 
brigades  and  divisions,  and  were  drilled  at  stated 
intervals,  and  received  instruction  in  military  tactics. 
But,  doubtless,  after  all,  the  best  results  of  the  militia 
system  of  the  period  came  from  the  existence  of  an 
organization,  which  became  more  or  less  effective 
when  necessity  arose.  The  drill  and  military  instruc- 
tion probably  accomplished  little  more  than  to  bring 
the  citizen  soldiers  together  on  occasion.  The  value 
and  efficiency  of  the  Virginia  militia  of  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  consisted  in  their  natural 
aptitude  for  military  service,  growing  out  of  their 
familiarity  with  fire-arms,  their  habitude  of  an  out- 
door life,  and  that  "free  and  unconquerable  spirit" 
which  animated  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth. 

So  it  was  that  Gordon  regarded  it  as  no  small 


88       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

honor,  after  seeing  service  as  a  private  in  the  field 
in  the  War  of  1812,  to  occupy  at  a  later  date  the 
office,  and  to  discharge  the  duties,  of  both  brigadier- 
general  and  major-general,  during  the  continuance 
of  his  public  career — to  which  military  positions  he 
was  successively  elected  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  State. 


CHAPTER  VI 

IN      THE      GENERAL      ASSEMBLY THE     UNIVERSITY 

OF  VIRGINIA 

Gordon  returned  home  at  the  close  of  the  War  of 
1812  with  Great  Britain,  and  resumed  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  maintaining  in  the  meanwhile  an 
active  interest  in  the  political  occurrences  of  the 
period. 

The  Hartford  Convention  illustrated  the  con- 
tinued opposition  of  New  England  to  the  war. 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  sent 
delegates  to  this  convention,  which  assembled  at 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  on  December  15,  1814,  in 
response  to  an  invitation  of  the  first  named  State, 
and  continued  in  session  until  January  5,  1815. 
There  were  also  delegates  in  attendance  from  some 
of  the  communities  of  Vermont  and  New  Hamp- 
shire. The  sessions  were  secret;  but  the  published 
report  of  the  convention  illustrates  the  first  overt 
act  of  nullification  by  an  assemblage  of  States  in  the 
history  of  the  Union.  It  justified  secession  as  per- 
missible, but  not  to  be  resorted  to  save  as  an  abso- 
lute necessity,  and  affirmed  the  doctrines  of  the  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky  resolutions.  It  adjourned  to  meet 
in  June,  if  its  demands  on  Congress  were  not  com- 
plied with,  or  peace  declared  in  the  meantime.  The 
president's  proclamation  of  February  the  i8th  dealt 
it  its  death-blow;  and  it  did  not  reassemble. 

War  with  Algiers  followed  in  1815,  in  which  De- 
catur  added  to  the  fame  which  he  had  achieved  in 
that  of  1812.  In  1816  Congress  established  a  new 
national  bank,  with  a  charter  to  continue  twenty 
years,  the  expiration  of  which  gave  rise  to  one  of  the 
most  tremendous  political  struggles  in  the  history 
of  the  country.  Out  of  this  struggle  emerged  the 


90      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

great  financial  measure  of  the  Independent  Treasury, 
with  which  Gordon's  distinction  as  a  statesman  is 
most  closely  associated.  In  that  year  Colonel  James 
Monroe  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States. 
In  1 8 1 6  a  panic  lasting  for  two  years  inaugurated  the 
first  serious  antagonism  to  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States;  and  in  that  year  also  General  Andrew  Jack- 
son conducted  to  a  successful  termination  the  first 
Scminole  War  in  Florida. 

In  the  last  named  year  Gordon  was  elected,  with 
Samuel  Carr,  to  represent  Albemarle  County  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Delegates.  Mr.  Joseph  C.  Ca- 
bell  had  been  since  1 8 1 1  the  State  Senator  from  the 
district  of  which  Albemarle  formed  a  part;  and,  in 
the  session  of  the  General  Assembly  preceding  Gor- 
don's election,  had  been  warmly  enlisted  and  actively 
engaged  in  forwarding  Mr.  Jefferson's  cherished 
scheme  for  the  establishment  of  a  State  University. 
Cabell  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  education;  and 
has  been  especially  and  deservedly  distinguished  as 
Mr.  Jefferson's  earliest  and  most  prominent  coad- 
jutor in  the  great  work  of  founding  the  University 
of  Virginia  at  Charlottesville.  The  memorials  of 
his  relation  to  that  noble  undertaking  and  achieve- 
ment are  preserved  in  a  volume  published  after  his 
death,  under  the  title,  "Early  History  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  as  contained  in  the  letters  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  and  Joseph  C.  Cabell."  This  volume  con- 
tains a  voluminous  correspondence  between  these 
two  warm  personal  and  political  friends,  dealing 
with  a  vast  number  of  interesting  subjects,  chief 
among  which  are  those  of  education  in  Virginia,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  University.  During  the 
years  1817  and  1818  the  principal  and  absorbing 
theme  of  this  correspondence  is  "The  Central  Col- 
lege," and  the  University  bill  in  the  General  As- 
sembly. 

When  Gordon  entered  the  lower  house  in  the  lat- 
ter year,  Mr.  Jefferson  felt  that  with  Cabell  in  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      91 

Senate  embodying  a  wide  public  acquaintance,  a 
thorough  familiarity  with  the  subject,  and  a  large 
experience  in  legislation,  and  with  Gordon  in  the 
House  of  Delegates,  active,  energetic,  magnetic  and 
full  of  enthusiasm,  he  had  two  able  local  representa- 
tives of  his  enterprise;  and  the  event  justified  the  an- 
ticipation, though  only  after  a  long  and  often  almost 
desperate  struggle. 

Mr.   Cabell  resided  at    Union    Hill,    in    Nelson 
County,  at  some  distance  from  Monticello.    Gordon, 
on  the  other  hand,  lived  in  the  same  county  with  the 
sage  of  Monticello,  and  in  the  same  neighborhood, 
as  the  neighborhoods  of  that  day  were  reckoned ;  and 
saw  him  constantly  in  his  visits  to    Charlottesville, 
and  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  home.    There  was  little  need, 
therefore,  of  personal  correspondence  between  them, 
during  the  vacations  of  the  legislature;  and  during 
its   sessions   the   venerable   ex-President,     to    whom 
writing  had  become  a  physical  burden,  of  which  he 
often  complained,  continued  his  correspondence  upon 
University  matters  with  Mr.   Cabell,  as  was  most 
natural,  with  the  assurance  that  his  views  and  wishes 
would  be  communicated  by  him  to  Gordon  and  to 
the  other  zealous  friends  of  the    measure.      Thus 
there  was  little  written  correspondence  between  the 
two  men ;  but  the  value  of  Gordon's  services  in  effect- 
ing the  final  establishment  of  the  University,   and 
in  subsequent  legislation  touching  its  continued  ex- 
istence, is  attested  by  the  frequency  of  mention  made 
of  him  and  his  work  in  the  Jefferson-Cabell  letters,  no 
less  than  by  the  record  of  his  work  in  the  House  of 
Delegates. 

The  distinction  which  he  had  already  achieved  as 
a  lawyer  won  for  him  a  position  on  the  Committee 
on  Courts  of  Justice  immediately  upon  his  becoming 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates;  and  he  also 
received  appointment  on  the  important  Committee 
of  Finance,  and,  what  he  coveted  still  more,  because 
of  the  opportunity  it  gave  him  of  accomplishing  ef- 


92       WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

fective  work  for  the  University  bill,  a  position  on 
the  Committee  of  Schools  and  Colleges. 

The  naked  skeleton  of  a  University  bill  had  passed 
both  houses  of  the  General  Assembly  in  the  preced- 
ing February.  This  had  been  accomplished  by  the 
grafting  upon  the  school  bill  of  a  provision  for  a 
University.  The  title  of  the  act  was,  "An  act  ap- 
propriating part  of  the  Revenue  of  the  Literary 
Fund,  and  for  other  purposes;"  and  the  date  of  its 
passage  was  February  21,  1818.  Gordon's  friend, 
James  Barbour,  when  speaker  of  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates in  1810,  had  drawn  a  bill,  which  was  enacted 
into  a  law  in  February  of  that  year,  providing  that 
all  escheats,  confiscations,  fines,  penalties  and  for- 
feitures, and  all  rights  in  personal  property  found 
derelict,  should  be  appropriated  to  the  encourage- 
ment of  learning;  and  the  Auditor  of  the  State  was 
required  to  open  an  account  with  this  fund,  which 
was  designated  as  "The  Literary  Fund."  It  was 
managed  by  a  president  and  directors,  who  by  act 
of  February  24,  1815,  were  directed  to  elaborate  a 
scheme  of  public  instruction.  They  made  a  report 
on  the  6th  of  December,  1816,  recommending  the 
establishment  of  three  grades  of  educational  insti- 
tutions, to  wit:  primary  schools,  academies,  and  a 
University;  and  the  act  of  February  21,  1818,  was 
based  upon  this  report. 

The  last  named  act  provided  generally  for  the  es- 
establishment  of  "a  University  to  be  called  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  wherein  all  the  branches  of  use- 
ful science  shall  be  taught,"  and  specifically  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Board  of  Commissioners,  who 
should  report  to  the  legislature,  site,  plan, 
branches  of  learning,  number  and  description 
of  professorships,  and  general  provisions  for 
organization  and  government.  The  bill  also 
provided  for  the  appropriation  of  the  sum 
of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  per  annum  out  of  the 
revenue  of  the  Literary  Fund  "for  the  purpose  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      93 

defraying  the  expenses  of  procuring  the  land  and 
erecting  the  buildings,  and  for  the  permanent  en- 
dowment of  the  said  University" — a  sum  grossly  in- 
adequate to  make  even  a  beginning  of  the  great  work 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  so  much  in  mind. 

It  was  a  case  of  stat  nominis  umbra.  Unless  addi- 
tional apppropriations  could  be  had  the  warmest 
friends  of  a  University  recognized  that  the  scheme 
was  but  the  shadow  of  a  name;  and  when  the  selec- 
tion of  a  site  came  to  be  considered  by  those  who 
hoped  to  obtain  such  increased  appropriations,  the 
troubles  of  the  project  began.  The  rival  claims  of 
Charlottesville,  Staunton,  Lexington  and  Williams- 
burg  were  insistent;  and  in  each  case  were  supported 
by  powerful  local  influences,  which  threatened  to 
create  dissensions  and  difficulties  that  would  prove 
to  be  insurmountable.  The  commissioners,  con- 
sisting of  a  number  of  the  ablest  and  most  prominent 
men  in  the  State,  met  on  August  i,  1818,  at  the 
Rockfish  Gap  Tavern,  in  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains. 
Mr.  Jefferson,  a  member  of  the  body,  was  elected 
chairman;  and,  after  a  protracted  discussion,  the 
site  at  Charlottesville,  where  the  Central  College 
was  located,  of  which  he  and  Mr.  Cabell  were  both 
visitors,  was  chosen  by  a  vote  of  fourteen  therefor, 
as  against  five  for  other  places.  An  elaborate  report, 
setting  forth  in  detail  a  scheme  for  the  University, 
was  prepared  and  forwarded  to  the  two  Houses  of 
the  General  Assembly. 

Under  date  of  December  12,  1818,  Gordon  wrote 
from  Richmond  to  his  wife: 

"The  report  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  the  commis- 
sioners was  received  with  universal  admiration;  but 
the  friends  of  the  University  fear  that  there  will  be 
some  opposition  to  its  being  situated  at  the  Central 
College,  which  I  trust  may  not  succeed,  and  I  believe 
will  not.  I  send  your  father  a  copy  of  the  report 
with  my  most  affectionate  regards." 


94      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

In  the  House  of  Delegates  the  report  of  the  com- 
missioners was  referred  to  a  select  committee,  of 
which  Gordon  was  a  member.  Then  the  fight  began. 
Mr.  Cabell  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson:  "The  prospect 
is  favorable;  but  the  effect  of  intrigue  and  manage- 
ment is  beyond  the  reach  of  calculation."  Cabell's 
health  was  bad,  and  his  friends  were  eager  to  have 
him  go  to  Williamsburg,  and  remain  there  until  its 
recovery.  But  with  Spartan  fortitude  he  declined  to 
leave  his  post  in  the  Senate  while  the  University  mat- 
ter was  in  jeopardy. 

"At  Bremo  my  fevers  returned,"  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Jefferson  on  December  8,  the  day  of  the  appointment 
of  the  select  committee,  "but  since  I  left  that  place 
my  recovery  has  been  advancing  uninterruptedly.  I 
shall  proceed  to  Williamsburg  and  stay  a  week  or 
two,  so  soon  as  the  subject  of  the  University  shall  be 
put  on  a  footing  satisfactory  to  my  mind." 

Gordon  on  the  select  committee  was  bending  every 
energy  to  accomplish  the  adoption  by  it  of  the  re- 
port; but  the  opposition  in  the  House  of  Delegates 
was,  from  the  beginning,  able,  alert  and  resourceful. 
The  day  after  Christmas,  1818,  he  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Gordon:  "I  had  at  one  time  indulged  a  vain  hope 
that  I  could  have  gone  home  about  this  time;  but 
the  importance  of  our  University  bill  is  so  great  to 
Virginia,  and  particularly  to  Albemarle,  that  I  feared 
to  leave  it,— especially  as  there  is  a  very  considerable 
resistance  to  the  whole  plan  of  education  in  Virginia ; 
and  I  believe  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  destroy  the 
Fund  by  appropriating  it  to  other  purposes." 

On  the  8th  of  January  following,  with  the  sub- 
ject of  the  University  still  haunting  his  thought,  even 
in  moments  of  domestic  correspondence,  he  wrote 
to  his  wife:  "I  hope  to  return  to  you  with  a  civic 
wreath,  if  I  can  accomplish  the  great  interest  in 
which  our  county  and  country  are  concerned." 

At  the  third  meeting  of  the  committee  the  op- 
ponents of  Charlottesville  as  the  site  of  the  Univer- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      95 

sity  lost  by  only  one  vote,  and  that  the  casting  vote 
of  the  chairman,  a  motion  to  leave  blank  the  location 
— a  movement,  which  had  it  been  successful  would 
have  easily  resulted  in  an  effective  combination  of 
a  majority  against  that  feature  of  the  report,  and  a 
complete  frustration  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  most  cher- 
ished hopes.  But  the  majority  of  one  for  Charlottes- 
ville  was  sufficient;  and  immediately  thereupon  the 
report  was  adopted,  and  the  site  of  the  institution 
thus  fixed  as  its  originator  had  planned. 

The  opposition  in  the  legislature,  however,  and 
especially  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  grew  in  in- 
tensity. The  Tidewater  country  and  the  western  sec- 
tion of  the  State  were  equally  hostile.  Cabell,  in 
spite  of  his  delicate  condition  of  health,  continued  at 
his  post  in  the  Senate;  and  in  the  House  Gordon 
used  all  the  persuasive  arts  of  conciliation  and  of  per- 
sonal appeal,  which  he  subsequently  demonstrated 
were  among  his  distinguishing  political  characteris- 
tics. The  bill  reported  by  the  select  committee  was 
debated  in  committee  of  the  whole  in  the  House  of 
Delegates  on  January  18,  1819,  and  the  vote  was 
taken  on  a  motion  to  amend  by  striking  out  "the  Cen- 
tral College  in  Albemarle,"  as  "a  convenient  and 
proper  part  of  the  State  for  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia," resulting  in  a  decisive  victory  for  the  friends 
of  the  institution  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  four- 
teen to  sixty-nine.  That  night  Gordon  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Gordon:  "We  have  been  engaged  for  upwards  of 
a  week  incessantly  in  discussing  the  University  bill, 
and  I  think  there  is  now  no  doubt  that  it  will  be 
located  at  the  Central  College,  as  a  vote  was  taken 
in  our  house  on  yesterday  decisive,  I  think,  of  the 
final  enactment  of  the  bill." 

The  battle  had  been  fought  out  to  a  finish  and  won 
upon  the  field  of  its  fiercest  conflict,  in  the  House  of 
Delegates;  and  with  the  successful  determination  of 
the  fight  in  that  body  its  passage  through  the  Senate 
seemed  comparatively  easy.  The  shadow  had  begun 


96      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

to  take  a  local  habitation  no  less  than  a  name;  and 
"An  act  for  the  establishment  of  an  University"  was 
reported  to  the  House  from  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  and  passed  there  on  January  19,  1819,  by  a 
vote  of  one  hundred  and  forty-three  to  twenty-eight. 
It  then  wrent  to  the  Senate,  where  Mr.  Cabell's  long 
and  able  service  and  compelling  influence  had  at  last 
disarmed  substantial  opposition,  and  passed  that 
body  on  January  25,  1819,  by  a  vote  of  sixteen  to 
seven,  and  was  signed  by  Governor  James  -B.  Pres- 
ton, thus  becoming  a  law. 

For  its  passage  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  where 
the  most  determined  and  protracted  opposition  to 
the  measure  was  manifested,  his  colleagues  gave  no 
small  part  of  the  credit  to  the  zeal,  the  energy,  the 
tact  and  the  eloquence  of  Gordon,  of  whom  Mr. 
Jefferson,  in  a  similar  connection  at  a  later  day,  wrote 
to  Mr.  Cabell,  as  being  "the  local  representative  of 
the  University,  and  among  its  most  zealous  friends." 

But  the  troubles  of  the  infant  institution  had  not 
ended  with  its  legislative  establishment  and  location. 
The  winter  of  1819-1820  was  pregnant  with  signifi- 
cance to  its  future  existence.  The  question  of 
financing  the  new  educational  enterprise  was  one  of 
great  moment  and  of  even  greater  delicacy.  The 
defeated  opposition  had  not  been  conquered;  and  the 
friends  of  the  University  in  the  legislature  were 
forced  to  feel  their  way  continuously,  step  by  step. 
Cabell  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson  under  date  of  Febru- 
ary 24th,  1820:  "The  enclosed  bill  has  this  day 
passed  into  a  law.  The  House  of  Delegates  having 
first  rejected  the  amendment  of  the  Senate  for 
$80,000;  and  then  that  for  $40,000,  and  having 
postponed  the  whole  bill  on  the  22nd,  General 
Breckinridge,  Mr.  Johnson  and  myself  had  a  con- 
sultation, and  agreed  that  the  interests  of  the  institu- 
tion would  be  promoted  by  the  bill  now  enclosed. 
Our  friend,  Mr.  Gordon,  had  already  moved  for 
leave  to  bring  in  a  bill,  and  was  in  the  midst  of  an 


97 

animated  discussion,  when  Mr.  Johnson  and  myself 
got  to  the  House.  We  prevailed  on  him  to  withdraw 
his  motion,  to  make  way  for  the  introduction  of  the 
subject  by  General  Breckinridge,  who,  we  supposed, 
not  being  from  the  local  district,  would  have  more 
influence  with  the  House.  The  bill  went  through  this 
morning  with  but  little  opposition.  We  hope  we 
have  taken  the  course  which  yourself  and  the  other 
visitors  will  approve,  considering  the  circumstances 
in  which  we  were  placed.  The  University  is  popular 
in  the  Senate,  and  unpopular  in  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates." 

It  had  been  popular  in  the  Senate  and  unpopular 
in  the  House  from  the  beginning;  and  it  was  always 
in  the  latter  body  that  the  most  persistent,  steady  and 
strenuous  effort  in  its  behalf  was  constantly  required. 
Whether  through  its  introduction  by  General  Breck- 
inridge, or  through  the  activity  and  animated  argu- 
ments of  Gordon,  the  subject  took  shape  on  the  23d 
day  of  February  in  the  order  by  the  House  that  a 
committee,  of  which  both  Breckinridge  and  Gordon 
were  members,  "do  prepare  and  bring  in  a  bill  au- 
thorizing the  Visitors  of  the  University  of  Virginia 
to  borrow  money  for  furnishing  the  buildings 
thereof."  The  bill,  which  was  the  one  enclosed  by 
Cabell  to  Jefferson,  was  "brought  in,"  and  went 
through,  as  stated  by  the  former,  "with  but  little 
opposition." 

The  success  of  the  measure  in  its  apparently  com- 
paratively easy  passage  through  the  hostile  House 
was  not,  however,  a  precursor  of  ever-continued 
smooth  sailing.  Difficulties  and  antagonisms  had 
grown  up  between  the  friends  of  the  State  elementary 
schools  and  those  of  the  University  in  the  Legisla- 
ture; and  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  to  Mr.  Cabell  under 
date  of  November  28,  1820,  suggesting  means  of  a 
reconciliation  of  the  two  antagonistic  elements: 


98      WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"A  wrist  stiffened  by  an  ancient  accident,  now 
more  so  by  the  effect  of  age,  renders  writing  a  slow 
and  irksome  operation  with  me.  I  cannot  therefore 
present  these  views  by  separate  letters  to  each  of  our 
colleagues  in  the  Legislature,  but  must  pray  you  to 
communicate  them  to  Mr.  Johnson  and  General 
Breckinridge,  and  request  them  to  consider  them  as 
equally  meant  for  them.  Mr.  Gordon  being  the 
local  representative  of  the  University,  and  among  its 
most  zealous  friends,  would  be  a  more  useful  second 
to  General  Breckinridge  in  the  House  of  Delegates 
by  a  free  communication  of  what  concerns  the  Uni- 
versity, with  which  he  (Breckinridge)  has  had  little 
opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted." 

When  the  Christmas  holidays  of  this  year  ap- 
proached, Gordon  wrote  to  his  wife  from  his  place 
in  the  legislature,  that  it  made  him  melancholy  to  see 
members  going  home,  while  he  had  to  stay;  but 
added  that  "the  University  subject  remains  to  be 
disposed  of,"  and  that  he  could  not  leave  it. 

Mr.  Cabell's  reliance  upon  Gordon's  influence  in 
the  House  appears  in  repeated  comments  in  his  letters 
to  Mr.  Jefferson.  "In  the  House  of  Delegates,"  he 
writes  under  date  of  February  25,  1821,  "Mr.  Gor- 
don has  shown  himself  an  able,  valuable  and  efficient 
friend  *  *  *  I  hope  Mr.  Gordon  will  return. 
The  cordiality  and  generosity  of  his  nature  make 
him  the  favorite  of  a  large  circle  of  friends." 

Gordon  was  again  a  candidate  and  again  returned. 
On  September  23,  1822,  we  find  Mr.  Cabell  sug- 
gesting to  Jefferson  a  plan  of  operations  for  the 
legislative  session.  The  smouldering  fires  of  opposi- 
tion were  still  burning;  and  it  behooved  the  friends 
of  the  University  to  keep  constant  watch  and  ward. 

"Mr.  Gordon  and  Mr.  Rives  left  this  for 
Albemarle  on  yesterday,"  he  wrote,  "and  will  not 
probably  return  for  eight  or  ten  days.  The  latter 
went  for  his  family,  and  the  former  to  visit  Mrs. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON      99 

Gordon  in  her  distress  for  the  loss  of  a  child.  I  am 
very  sorry  that  they  were  obliged  to  leave  town,  as 
we  want  the  aid  of  all  our  friends  at  this  time.  Mr. 
Gordon  shewed  me  on  Saturday  a  letter  which  he 
had  just  received  from  Mr.  Dinsmore,  stating  that 
the  undertakers  had  ascertained  that  they  would  not 
afford  to  build  the  library  for  less  than  $70,000.  At 
my  instance  Mr.  Gordon  threw  the  letter  in  the  fire. 
My  object  was  to  prevent  its  being  made  an  im- 
proper use  of,  in  the  event  of  its  being  seen  by  our 
enemies.  I  have  spoken  with  one  or  two  friends  con- 
fidentially on  the  subject,  and  we  all  agree  that  if  the 
price  of  the  undertakers  should  rise  above  $50,000, 
and  more  especially  if  it  should  reach  $70,000,  it 
would  be  better  to  abandon  the  project  of  a  condi- 
tional contract  on  their  parts,  and  leave  us  at  large." 

"Dinsmore's  $70,000,"  replied  Mr.  Jefferson  on 
December  28,  "evidence  only  the  greediness  of  an 
undertaker";  and  he  went  on  to  give  estimates  of 
sections  of  the  work  which  he  had  obtained,  and 
further  to  develop  his  plans  about  the  building.  "A 
letter  of  a  page  or  two,"  he  continued,  "costs  me  a 
day  of  labor.  I  have  few  now  to  live ;  should  I  con- 
sign them  all  to  pain?  I  ought,  if  I  could,  to  write 
to  yourself,  to  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr.  Rives,  Mr.  Gor- 
don, and  to  Mr.  Loyall,  too,  now  one  of  our  frater- 
nity. But  what  I  say  to  one,  you  must  all  be  so  indul- 
gent as  to  consider  meant  for  the  whole." 

"I  am  happy  to  inform  you,"  Cabell  wrote  back 
on  December  30,  "that  Mr.  Gordon  and  Mr.  Rives 
arrived  in  town  last  evening,  and  have  attended  the 
House  to-day.  Mr.  Gordon  called  on  me  this  morn- 
ing, when  I  disclosed  to  him  what  I  had  done  in  his 
absence,  and  my  present  views  and  prospects.  Mr. 

*  *  *  has  twice  announced  to  Mr.  Gary,  on 
being  consulted  by  him,  that  he  would  oppose  any 
further  building;  yet  Mr.  Gordon  thinks  he  may  be 
brought  over." 

Under    date    of    January    2,    following,    Gordon 


ioo    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

wrote  to  his  wife:  "The  report  of  the  Visitors  of 
the  University  has  been  with  us  for  some  time;  but, 
owing  to  the  absence  of  Governor  Pleasants  with  his 
family,  has  not  yet  been  presented  to  the  legislature. 
We  hope  to  do  something  for  it." 

Again  the  antagonism  of  the  primary  schools  was 
cropping  out.  "Your  favor  of  I3th  instant,"  wrote 
Cabell  to  Mr.  Jefferson  on  January  23,  1823,  "came 
safely  to  hand  by  the  mail.  I  have  shown  it  to  Mr. 
Gordon  and  Mr.  Rives  *  *  *  In  regard  to  the 
academies  and  primary  schools,  I  think  our  most 
prudent  course  at  this  time,  is  neither  to  enter  into  an 
alliance  with  them,  nor  to  make  war  upon  them 

*  *  *  I  have  imparted  these  views  to  Mr. 
Rives,  and  left  him  to  pursue  his  own  course.  Mr. 
Gordon  concurs  with  me." 

The  Loan  bill,  authorizing  the  borrowing  of 
money  for  the  buildings  of  the  University,  went 
through  the  House  of  Delegates  on  February  3, 
1823.  The  House  journal  of  that  date  states: 
"An  engrossed  bill  'concerning  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia,' was  read  the  third  time;  and  the  question 
being  put  upon  the  passage  thereof,  was  determined 
in  the  affirmative.  Ayes,  121;  Noes,  66.  Resolved: 
That  the  bill  do  pass  and  (the  title  being  amended 
on  Mr.  Gordon's  motion)  that  the  title  be  'An  act 
concerning  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  for  other 
purposes.'  Ordered:  That  Mr.  Gordon  communi- 
cate the  said  bill  to  the  Senate,  and  request  their  con- 
currence." 

The  shadow  of  a  name  had  at  last  grown  into  the 
substance  of  a  fact.  The  recalcitrant  House  having 
been  finally  brought  around,  the  Senate,  with  ready 
acquiescence,  concurred,  on  February  5,  by  a  vote  of 
nineteen  to  three;  and  on  the  same  date  Mr.  Cabell 
wrote  a  jubilant  letter  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  extending 
his  congratulations,  and  adding  in  a  postscript,  "Mr. 
Gordon  distinguished  himself  in  the  discussion  in  the 
House  of  Delegates." 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     101 

Six  days  later,  with  ready  generosity  in  accepting 
his  share  of  responsibility  for  the  failure  in  the 
House  of  Delegates  of  a  bill  to  pay  the  debts  of  the 
University,  Mr.  Cabell  wrote  his  next  letter  to  Jeffer- 
son. The  House  journal  of  February  10,  1823,  re- 
cites that  "a  motion  was  made  by  Mr.  Gordon  that 
this  House  do  come  to  the  following  resolution: 
Resolved,  That  the  Committee  of  Finance  be  in- 
structed to  inquire  into  the  best  means  of  providing 
for  the  payment  of  the  debts  of  the  University  of 
Virginia;  and  make  report  thereof  by  bill  or  other- 
wise. And  the  question  being  put  thereupon,  was  de- 
termined in  the  negative." 

Cabell  wrote  to  Jefferson  on  the  day  following: 

t 

"Yesterday  Mr.  Gordon  moved  in  the  House  of 

Delegates  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  authorizing 
the  Committee  of  Finance  to  inquire  and  report  to 
the  House  the  best  means  of  paying  the  debts  of  the 
University.  It  was  rejected  by  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority. To-day  a  similar  resolution  was  moved  by 
Mr.  Loyall,  and  supported  by  Mr.  Baldwin.  The 
vote  was  seventy  odd  to  ninety  odd.  The  subject  is 
at  rest  for  this  session.  Some  of  the  friends  of  the 
University  were  opposed  to  bringing  forward  the 
motion  at  this  session.  However,  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr. 
Loyall,  Mr.  Baldwin,  Mr.  Taylor  (of  Botetourt), 
Mr.  Bowyer,  Mr.  Gordon,  Mr.  Watkins  (of  Gooch- 
land) ,  General  Tucker,  &c.  &c.,  being  of  opinion  that 
the  character  of  the  present  Legislature  having 
shown  itself  to  be  very  favorable,  we  should  not  lose 
the  opportunity  it  might  afford  for  getting  the  debt 
remitted;  and  the  measure  being  right  in  itself,  and 
important  to  the  State,  I  entirely  concurred  in  the 
movement  of  the  question,  and  wish  to  share  with  my 
friend  Gordon  in  the  responsibility  arising  out  of  the 
proceeding.  I  know  our  indulgent  friends  would 
forgive  us,  if  we  had  done  wrong.  But  the  failure 
of  the  proposition  does  not  demonstrate  that  we  were 


102     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

wrong.  We  have  broken  the  ice,  and  prepared  the 
public  mind  for  a  future  application.  Besides,  if 
such  men  as  I  have  named  above,  agreed  with  us,  the 
movement  must  have  been  justified  by  appearances. 
We  could  not  dive  into  the  hearts  of  members." 

In  the  session  of  1823-24,  Gordon  was  again  a 
member  of  the  House  from  Albemarle,  and  his  col- 
league was  once  more  Jefferson's  son-in-law,  Colonel 
Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  who  having  served  as  a 
member  of  the  Senate  in  1793-94,  and  as  a  represent- 
ative in  Congress  from  1803  to  1807,  had  exhibited 
an  ardent  and  conspicuous  patriotism  in  the  War  of 
1812,  and  in  1819  had  been  elected  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia while  a  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates. 
Cabell  was  still  in  the  Senate  from  the  district,  with 
his  thoughts  fixed  on  the  University,  and  continuing 
his  correspondence,  which  detailed  on  his  part  its 
legislative  progress,  with  its  great  originator. 
Money  was  yet  the  desideratum;  and  the  Univer- 
sity's future  was  dependent  upon  the  attitude  of  the 
General  Assembly  towards  it  in  the  matter  of  finan- 
cial assistance.  In  his  letter  of  January  29,  1824, 
Cabell  emphasized  the  value  of  that  part  of  the 
organic  law  of  the  University  which  provided  that 
"the  University  shall  be  at  all  times  and  in  all  things 
subject  to  the  control  of  the  General  Assembly." 

"I  have  now  the  gratification  to  enclose  to  you  by 
our  friend  Mr.  Garrett,"  he  wrote  to  Jefferson,  ua 
copy  of  the  University  Act  of  the  present  session.  It 
passed  the  Senate  unanimously.  Attempts  were 
made  to  amend  it;  but  we  were  determined  to  pass 
the  bill  as  it  came  to  us,  because  our  friends  in  the 
other  house  warned  us  of  the  imminent  danger  of  its 
return.  I  was  ill  in  bed  when  the  proviso  to  which 
you  so  much  object  was  added  to  the  bill.  It  was 
deemed  perfectly  harmless  by  our  friends,  and  useful 
as  furnishing  an  excuse  to  join  us.  We  are  all  con- 
cerned to  find  you  so  much  opposed  to  it,  and  still 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     103 

hope  you  will  be  reconciled.  After  it  was  proposed, 
it  would  have  been  difficult  to  resist  it;  and  when  en- 
grafted on  the  bill,  an  attempt  to  strike  it  from  the 
bill  would  have  endangered  our  success.  We  had 
always  plumed  ourselves  on  our  democratic  char- 
acter. We  had  fought  the  college  party  with  that 
clause  in  our  charter  which  says  'the  University  shall 
be  at  all  times  and  in  all  things  subject  to  the  control 
of  the  General  Assembly.'  We  were  seizing  on  all 
occasions  to  engraft  a  similar  provision  on  new  char- 
ters. If  on  this  we  had  shown  a  distrust  incom- 
patible with  former  professions,  our  good  faith 
would  have  been  impeached,  and  we  should  have 
alienated  our  most  powerful  friend,  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  State.  The  annuity  cannot  be  with- 
drawn but  by  a  concurrent  vote  of  the  two  houses, 
and  I  think  the  time  will  never  come  when  such  a 
vote  will  be  obtained.  Such  is  the  opinion  of  all  the 
four  Visitors  in  town.  We  shall  want  further  aid  in 
future,  and  it  would  be  unfortunate  to  lose  any  por- 
tion of  the  favor  we  now  possess.  Col.  Randolph 
concurs  in  these  views.  So  does  Mr.  Gordon." 

Again  Gordon  was  returned  to  the  House  for  the 
session  of  1824-25,  where  we  find  him  still  standing 
sentinel,  with  Mr.  Cabell  in  the  Senate,  over  the  in- 
terests of  the  University.  On  February  18,  1825, 
he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon:  "My  anxiety  to  be  with 
my  family  increases  as  the  time  draws  near  when  I 
am  to  meet  them.  I  think  we  cannot  sit  longer  than 
another  week.  Indeed,  except  one,  we  have  no  im- 
portant question  before  us.  The  University  appro- 
priation you  will  have  seen  from  the  papers  was  car- 
ried by  a  great  vote.  I  had  some  hope  that  we  could 
have  gotten  the  debt  relinquished  that  thev  owe  to 
the  Literary  Fund;  but  that  will  come,  of  course." 

On  March  7,  1825,  Mr.  Jefferson's  cherished 
dream  was  realized.  The  University  opened  with 
sixty  students,  who  by  the  following  first  of  October 
had  grown  in  numbers  to  one  hundred  and  sixteen. 


io4    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Gordon  was  again  returned  to  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates from  Albemarle;  where  he  remained  in  con- 
tinuous service  till  1829,  in  which  year  he  was  again 
elected  to  the  House,  and  also  to  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives of  the  United  States  Congress,  and  to 
the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1829-30.  He  de- 
clined further  service  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  and 
after  serving  in  the  convention  throughout  its  ses- 
sions, took  his  seat  in  Congress.  Mr.  Cabell's  long 
and  uninterrupted  service  in  the  Senate  of  Virginia 
terminated  in  the  same  year  as  that  of  Gordon  in  the 
House  of  Delegates.  He  retired  to  private  life,  con- 
tinuing, however,  his  association  with  the  University 
as  one  of  its  Visitors  from  1819  to  1856,  the  date  of 
his  death,  during  which  period  he  was  the  Rector  in 
1834-1836,  and  again  from  1845  to  1856. 

The  time  between  Gordon's  entrance  upon  his  leg- 
islative career  in  the  General  Assembly  in  1818  and 
its  termination  in  1829  had  been  the  crucial  period 
with  the  University  of  Virginia.  During  that  period 
his  colleagues  from  Albemarle  had  been  numerous. 
They  had  come  and  gone,  rendering  what  assistance 
they  could  during  their  stay — assistance  which  was 
very  often  valuable;  yet  lacking  in  the  steady  conti- 
nuity which  characterized  his  eleven  years  of  devo- 
tion, and  Cabell's  even  larger  number,  to  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's noble  scheme.  Early  in  that  service  Gordon 
had  come  to  be  one  of  the  most  influential  members 
of  the  House  of  Delegates.  His  prominence  is  illus- 
trated in  his  long  and  conspicuous  occupancy  of  the 
chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Courts  of  Justice ; 
and  his  membership  of  the  two  important  committees 
of  Finance  and  of  Schools  and  Colleges  gave  oppor- 
tunity of  rendering  his  labor  in  behalf  of  the  Uni- 
versity effective. 

In  July,  1826,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  dead;  but  his 
coadjutors  in  the  legislature  continued  to  cherish  the 
welfare  of  his  great  educational  institution^  now 
firmly  established,  as  they  cherished  the  memories  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORLON     105 

their  personal  associations  with  him,  and  their  ad- 
herence to  his  political  principles.  In  his  last  letter 
to  Mr.  Cabell,  the  venerable  statesman,  harassed  and 
burdened  by  debt,  and  troubled  with  many  cares, 
still  evinced  his  abiding  interest  in  the  institution. 
On  April  21,  1826,  he  wrote  from  Monticello: 
"We  have  now  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  students; 
and  on  the  opening  of  the  law-school,  we  expect  to 
have  our  dormitories  filled.  Order  and  industry 
nearly  complete,  and  sensibly  improving  every  day." 
On  January  8,  1827,  the  journal  of  the  House  of 
Delegates  testifies  to  Gordon's  continued  association 
with  the  University  as  "its  local  representative  and 
one  of  its  most  zealous  friends,"  as  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  denominated  him  years  before :  "On  motion  of 
Mr.  Gordon,  Resolved,  That  the  Report  of  the 
Rector  and  Visitors  of  the  University  of  Virginia  be 
referred  to  the  Committee  of  Schools  and  Colleges, 
with  leave  to  report  by  bill  or  otherwise";  and  on 
January  27  the  journal  contains  this  entry: 

"On  motion  of  Mr.  Gordon,  ordered  that  two 
hundred  and  fifty  copies  of  the  Governor's  communi- 
cation, together  with  the  accompanying  documents, 
relating  to  the  University  of  Virginia,  be  printed  for 
the  use  of  members  of  the  General  Assembly." 

Again,  in  1827,  we  find  him  seeking  to  induce  a 
hostile  House  of  Delegates  to  consent  to  pay  the 
debts  of  the  University.  An  entry  in  the  House 
journal  on  the  23d  of  February  of  that  year  is:  "A 
motion  was  made  by  Mr.  Gordon  that  the  House 
adopt  the  following  resolution:  Resolved,  That 
leave  be  given  to  bring  in  a  bill  'to  pay  the  debts  and 
finish  the  buildings  of  the  University,'  which  was  de- 
feated by  a  vote  of  sixty-six  ayes  to  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  noes." 

When,  in  1829,  he  retired  from  the  General 
Assembly  to  enter  upon  the  larger  field  of  national 


io6    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

politics,  it  was  with  the  consciousness  that  he  had 
rendered  no  insignificant  service  in  aiding  to  fashion 
into  a  reality  the  splendid  dream  which  had  inspired 
the  declining  years  of  Jefferson. 


CHAPTER  VII 

IN  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY SOME  OF  ITS  MEMBERS 

THE  OFFICE  OF  GOVERNOR 

During  Gordon's  membership  in  the  House  of 
Delegates  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  was 
rich  in  men  of  a  high  order  of  ability,  many  of  whom 
subsequently  achieved  great  distinction  for  states- 
manship or  judicial  acquirements.  His  successive 
colleagues  in  the  House  from  Albemarle  County  con- 
tained in  their  number  several  figures  of  conspicuous 
talents;  and  in  more  than  one  instance  they  rose  to 
lofty  public  eminence.  Any  account  of  the  times  in 
Virginia  would  be  inadequate  which  failed  to  contain 
some  mention  of  those  citizens  who  illustrated  the 
character,  the  capacity  and  the  qualifications  of  the 
legislator  of  the  period,  in  the  legislative  halls  of  the 
Commonwealth.  It  was  very  often  from  the  ranks 
of  the  General  Assembly  that  the  Governors  of  the 
State  and  its  United  States  Senators  were  chosen; 
and  these  in  turn,  after  having  filled  their  high  offices, 
esteemed  it  no  unworthy  honor  to  return  again  to  the 
Capitol  in  Richmond  as  representatives  of  local  con- 
stituencies. 

For  the  period  of  Gordon's  service  in  the  House 
as  a  delegate,  its  clerk  and  keeper  of  the  rolls  was 
George  Wythe  Munford,  who  occupied  the  position 
for  a  long  series  of  years,  and  who  has  left  in  his 
volume,  "The  Two  Parsons,"  a  notable  account  of 
many  of  the  prominent  figures  of  his  day  and  gener- 
ation in  the  Commonwealth.  Munford  himself  was 
a  man  of  ability  and  of  engaging  personality;  and 
his  wide  acquaintance  with  his  contemporaries  of 
public  importance  entitles  him  to  a  conspicuous  posi- 
tion in  any  narrative  of  the  legislative  events  of  the 
time.  He  was  elected  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Dele- 


io8     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

\ 

gates  in  1825,  and  continued  in  the  office  for  twenty- 
seven  successive  years  by  unanimous  votes.  He  was 
elected  in  1829,  upon  its  assembling  in  Richmond, 
Clerk  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1829-30; 
but  resigned  that  office  after  two  months,  because  it 
conflicted  with  his  duties  as  Clerk  of  the  House  of 
Delegates.  He  was  at  a  later  period  Secretary  of 
the  Commonwealth;  and  in  his  long  public  career 
gained  perhaps  a  larger  acquaintance  than  was  pos- 
sessed by  any  other  individual  of  his  generation  with 
the  history  and  forms  of  state  legislation,  and  with 
the  condition  of  the  accounts  and  claims  of  the  State. 
Governor  Henry  A.  Wise  said  of  him  in  his  later 
years  that  he  was  "intus  et  in  cute  a  Virginian,  im- 
bued with  their  prejudices,  their  pride,  their  passions, 
their  grace  and  their  glory!" 

During  his  long  tenure  of  the  office  of  Clerk  of  the 
House  many  notable  Virginians  filled  the  Speaker's 
chair:  James  Barbour,  Governor,  Senator,  Minister 
to  England;  Andrew  Stevenson,  Speaker  of  the 
United  States  House  of  Representatives;  Robert 
Stanard,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  of 
Virginia;  Linn  Banks,  accomplished  parliamentarian 
and  able  debater,  and  United  States  Congressman; 
Thomas  Walker  Gilmer,  Governor  and  Secretary  of 
War;  William  O.  Goode,  three  times  elected 
Speaker,  member  of  Congress,  and  a  member  of  the 
convention  which  made  the  Constitution  of  1850; 
and  Valentine  W.  Southall,  who  was  one  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  of  his  day  in  the  Commonwealth.  Of  these 
Speakers  of  the  House,  Barbour,  Stevenson,  Stanard, 
Banks,  Gilmer  and  Southall,  all  came  from  Gordon's 
section  of  the  State, 'along  the  eastern  base  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  Mountains,  which  John  Randolph  had 
called  "The  Red  Hills  of  Piedmont,"  and  hailed  as 
the  home  of  greatness. 

Munford,  in  addition  to  his  clerical  services,  com- 
piled and  published  a  revision  of  the  Code  of  Vir- 
ginia in  1860,  and  another  edition  in  1873;  and 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     109 

wrote  "The  Two  Parsons"  at  a  later  date.  He  died 
in  January,  1882,  aged  seventy-nine  years. 

Another  and  more  picturesque  figure  in  the  halls 
of  legislation  during  Gordon's  stay  in  the  House  was 
its  Sergeant-at-Arms,  Peter  Francisco,  the  remark- 
able soldier  of  the  Revolution,  of  whom  it  was  said 
that  "he  used  a  sword  having  a  blade  five  feet  in 
length,  which  he  could  wield  as  a  feather,  and  every 
swordsman  who  came  in  contact  with  him  paid  the 
forfeit  of  his  life.  His  services  were  so  distinguished 
that  he  would  have  been  promoted  to  an  office  had  he 
been  enabled  to  write.  His  stature  was  six  feet  and 
an  inch,  and  his  weight  two  hundred  and  sixty  pounds 

*  *  *  Such  was  his  personal  strength  that  he 
could  easily  shoulder  a  cannon  weighing  eleven  hun- 
dred pounds."  He  had  engaged  in  the  battles  of 
Brandywine  and  Monmouth  in  the  North,  and  the 
Cowpens,  Camden  and  Guilford  Court  House  in  the 
South;  and  was  famous  throughout  the  country  for 
having  defeated  in  1781,  single-handed,  nine  of 
General  Banastre  Tarleton's  dragoons,  in  sight  of  a 
troop  of  four  hundred  of  their  comrades.  Francisco 
had  obtained  the  position  of  sergeant-at-arms  of  the 
House  through  the  influence  of  Colonel  Charles 
Yancey,  Gordon's  commander  in  the  War  of  1812; 
and  at  the  time  of  Munford's  election  to  the  clerk- 
ship was  a  man  well  advanced  in  years.  In  spite  of 
his  age,  however,  Munford  writes  of  him  :  "In  those 
days  I  have  seen  old  Peter  Francisco,  the  giant  ser- 
geant-at-arms, so  renowned  in  Revolutionary  times 
for  his  herculean  strength,  grasp  a  stout  man  by  the 
collar  with  his  left  hand,  and  raising  him  from  the 
floor  with  perfect  ease,  walk  with  him  out  of  the 
house  for  having  improperly  intruded  within  the 
bar."  Francisco  died  in  1836. 

For  the  entire  period  of  Gordon's  service  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Delegates  the  Speaker  of  that 
body  was  Linn  Banks,  of  the  Piedmont  county  of 
Madison.  Mr.  Banks  had  a  peculiar  experience,  in 


no    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

that  "for  twenty  successive  years  he  was  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Delegates,  an  office  for  which  he  was 
so  peculiarly  qualified  that  he  was  selected  to  fill  it  in 
all  the  mutations  of  party."  He  was  a  warm  friend 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  project  of  establishing  a  State 
University.  Mr.  Banks  retired  from  the  legislature 
in  1838,  and  was  elected  to  Congress  in  that  year,  to 
complete  the  unexpired  term  of  John  Mercer  Patton, 
who  resigned.  He  was  re-elected  for  the  two  suc- 
ceeding terms.  He  retired  to  private  life  in  1841, 
having  been  defeated  for  Congress  in  that  year;  and 
was  found  drowned  in  the  February  following  in  a 
stream  which  he  had  to  cross  in  going  from  Madison 
Court  House  to  his  home  in  the  country.  Mr.  Banks 
was  noted  for  his  skill  as  a  parliamentarian,  his  im- 
partiality of  decision,  and  his  urbanity  of  manner. 

Gordon's  first  associate  in  the  General  Assembly 
from  Albemarle  was  Samuel  Carr.  He  wras  the 
second  son  of  that  Dabney  Carr  who  had  moved  in 
the  House  of  Burgesses,  in  1773,  the  resolution  ap- 
pointing the  Committee  of  Correspondence,  and  who 
had  married  Mr.  Jefferson's  sister,  Martha.  Samuel 
Carr  was  therefore  Mr.  Jefferson's  nephew;  and  he 
was  a  brother  of  the  younger  Dabney  Carr,  who  is 
frequently  mentioned  in  Gordon's  letters  to  his  wife 
during  the  War  of  1812,  and  who  later  became 
Chancellor,  and  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals. 
Samuel  Carr  lived  at  "Dunlora,"  a  few  miles  north 
of  Charlottesville.  He  was  a  magistrate,  and  a  colo- 
nel of  State  troops  during  the  War  of  1812;  and 
served  one  term  in  the  House  of  Delegates.  Eight 
years  later  he  became  a  member  of  the  State  Senate 
from  the  district  composed  of  Albemarle  and  Nelson 
counties,  which  was  represented  throughout  Gordon's 
stay  in  the  General  Assembly  by  Joseph  C.  Cabell. 

Of  his  several  other  talented  colleagues  from  the 
county  during  his  legislative  career,  the  second  in 
point  of  time  was  Dr.  Charles  Everett,  who  lived  at 
Belmont,  adjacent  to  the  Edgehill  estate  of  Governor 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     in 

Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  until  1821,  and  later  at 
Everettsville,  in  the  same  neighborhood.  A  local  his- 
torian says  of  Dr.  Everett  that  "he  was  a  man  of 
great  talent  in  his  profession,  reserved  in  disposition, 
and  possessed  of  an  indomitable  will.  Rather  sus- 
picious of  men  in  general,  he  was  yet  warm-hearted 
and  liberal  when  their  sincerity  was  proved,  and  con- 
sequently was  slow  in  making  friends,  but  very 
tenacious  in  holding  them.  He  was  a  keen  observer 
of  human  nature  and  its  various  workings,  and  often 
used  the  knowledge  thus  gained  to  the  surprise  and 
benefit  of  his  many  patients.  Save  in  a  few  instances 
he  was  a  disbeliever  in  medicines,  and  held  that  the 
physician's  highest  aim  should  be  to  assist  nature, 
rather  than  coerce  her. 

"He  graduated  in  medicine  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1796,  and  with  a  short  interruption 
continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  until  his 
death.  The  break  in  his  medical  career  mentioned 
occurred  in  1817,  when  he  became  the  private  secre- 
tary of  President  Monroe,  and  afterwards  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  State  legislature  from  the  county  of 
Albemarle.  Soon  quitting  politics,  he  returned  to 
his  profession,  and  in  a  short  time  became  one  of  the 
most  famous  physicians  in  the  State.  Besides  Albe- 
marle, his  practice  extended  over  seven  adjoining 
counties,  and  at  one  time  he  was  called  to  attend 
Bishop  Madison  in  Richmond.  He  was  also  one  of 
the  consulting  physicians  in  the  last  illness  of  Mr. 
Jefferson.  Though  they  were  such  close  neighbors, 
they  were  far  from  being  close  political  friends;  and 
even  the  little  friendship  they  had  nearly  vanished 
when  Jefferson  looked  up,  and  seeing  Dr.  Everett 
one  of  the  three,  said  with  a  touch  of  grim  humor : 
'Whenever  I  see  three  doctors,  I  generally  look  out 
for  a  turkey-buzzard.'  And  though  Jefferson  meant 
it  as  one  of  his  jokes,  the  sensitive  doctor  took  it 
seriously  and  withdrew." 

Dr.    Everett    became    the    private    secretary    of 


President  Monroe  during  the  latter's  second  term,  in 
1822,  and  not  in  1817,  as  above  stated.  He  had 
served  a  term  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  and  been 
a  candidate  for  a  later  term,  but  was  defeated  in 
1822  by  Mr.  Rives.  Gordon  wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon 
from  Richmond,  December  15,  1822:  "Doctor 
Everett  is  appointed  Private  Secretary  to  the  Presi- 
dent, and  has  yielded  the  protracted  but  hopeless  con- 
test for  a  seat  in  the  legislature." 

The  physician  in  politics  appears  to  have  been  a 
not  unusual  figure  at  that  time  in  the  public  eye.  Dr. 
Everett  was  succeeded  in  the  House  of  Delegates  by 
Dr.  Charles  Cocke  as  one  of  the  two  Albemarle 
representatives.  Dr.  Cocke  is  said  to  have  been 
"distinguished  in  the  State  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  its 
political  writers  and  debaters."  He  served  one  term 
in  the  House;  and  after  1830  was  for  a  number  of 
years  State  Senator  from  the  district. 

Dr.  Cocke's  successor  in  the  House  from  Albe- 
marle was  Mr.  William  Cabell  Rives,  Gordon's  near 
neighbor,  who  served  with  him  for  one  term,  in 
1822-23.  Mr.  Rives  is  described  by  a  contemporary 
as  "  a  small  man,  very  much  like  his  father,  with  a 
fair  complexion,  chestnut  hair,  blue  eyes,  and  hand- 
some features.  He  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the 
politics  of  his  period,  and  achieved  distinguished 
position  as  representative  in  Congress,  United  States 
Senator,  and  Minister  to  France.  His  career  amply 
justified  the  inscription  upon  his  tombstone  at 
Walker's  Church,  near  Castle  Hill,  that  he  was  a 
statesman,  a  diplomatist  and  a  historian." 

Upon  Mr.  Rives'  election  to  Congress  in  1823  he 
was  succeeded  in  the  House  of  Delegates  by  Jeffer- 
son's son-in-law,  Colonel  Thomas  Mann  Randolph, 
of  whom  sorr,2  account  has  been  given  in  a  preceding 
chapter.  After  serving  one  term,  Colonel  Randolph 
retired;  and  was  followed  in  the  office  of  delegate 
by  Rice  W.  Wood,  a  young  lawyer  of  Albemarle,  who 
had  only  been  admitted  to  the  bar  three  years  earlier. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     113 

and  who  for  three  later  terms  was  a  member  of  the 
House,  dying  while  he  was  a  delegate,  in  1832,  and 
as  has  been  pathetically  said  of  him,  uon  the 
threshold  of  a  promising  career."  That  he  was  a 
man  of  ability  and  distinction  in  his  community  is 
evidenced  by  his  frequent  election  to  this  position 
from  a  county  whose  representatives  stood  in  the 
very  forefront  of  the  talent  of  the  State. 

In  1827  and  1828  Dr.  Cocke  was  again  in  the 
House;  and  Gordon's  associate  in  the  last  year  of  his 
service  as  delegate  from  Albemarle  was  Hugh  Nel- 
son, of  "Belvoir,"  then  an  elderly  man,  who  had 
already  been  a  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates 
and  its  Speaker;  and  after  having  represented  the 
district  in  Congress  by  successive  re-elections  from 
1811  to  1823,  when  Mr.  Rives  succeeded  him,  had 
been  appointed  in  the  last  named  year  as  United 
States  Minister  to  Spain. 

It  was  an  illustrious  representation  of  the  greatest 
of  the  counties  lying  among  the  Red  Hills  of  Pied- 
mont, which  had  carried  on  its  rolls,  as  members  of 
the  House  of  Burgesses  of  the  Colony,  and  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Commonwealth,  since  Albe- 
marle had  become  a  county  in  1744,  down  to  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1829-30,  the  names  of 
Peter  Jefferson,  father  of  the  President;  Thomas 
Jefferson,  himself;  William  Cabell,  and  William  Ca- 
bell,  Jr.;  Thomas  Walker  of  Castle  Hill,  John 
Walker  of  Belvoir,  Charles  Lewis,  Edward  Carter, 
George  Gilmer,  Wilson  Cary  Nicholas,  Joshua  Fry, 
Walter  Leake,  William  Waller  Hening,  Francis 
Walker,  James  Monroe,  Tucker  Coles,  Hugh  Nelson, 
William  C.  Rives,  Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  and 
others,  whose  civic  achievements  were  no  less  honor- 
able, and  are  less  conspicuous  only  in  degree. 

The  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  distinguished  for 
the  high  order  of  ability,  the  political  knowledge  and 
8 


ii4    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

acumen,  and  the  lofty  personal  character  of  its  mem- 
bers. It  was  the  training-school  of  a  statesmanship 
that  not  only  made  the  Commonwealth  notable  in 
her  local  administration  and  character  among  her  as- 
sociate States,  but  that  gave  her  an  imposing  and 
commanding  influence  through  a  long  period  in  the 
larger  affairs  and  the  more  expanded  life  of  the  na- 
tion. It  was  the  theatre  on  which  were  discussed, 
with  an  intelligence,  an  ability  and  an  eloquence  sel- 
dom excelled,  the  great  questions  of  constitutional 
interpretation  and  governmental  administration;  and 
which  at  times  caused  the  local  legislation  of  the 
State  to  seem  a  secondary  matter  in  comparison. 
The  Virginia  Resolutions,  the  Kentucky  Resolutions, 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  Nullification,  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  the  Removal  of  the  Deposits, 
Slavery — all  these  were  issues  which  were  regarded 
as  important  for  the  consideration  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  their  turn,  and  were  debated  and  passed 
upon  by  resolution  with  a  larger  zeal  and  enthusiasm 
than  characterized  the  discussion  and  enactment,  in 
most  instances,  of  State  legislation.  It  was  the 
forum  where  the  Virginian  aspirant  for  political  dis- 
tinction learned  the  best  lessons  of  his  profession; 
and  where,  no  less,  many  who  had  realized  high 
honors  in  the  larger  life  of  the  Union  esteemed  it 
still  a  distinction  to  serve  their  country  by  serving 
their  State. 

Space  does  not  permit  the  introduction  here  of  all 
of  Gordon's  contemporaries  in  the  General  Assembly 
who  were  prominent,  or  even  of  all  of  those  who 
were  highly  distinguished.  But  his  association  with 
the  legislation  establishing  and  affecting  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  was  such  that  some  account  of 
those  who,  with  Mr.  Cabell  and  himself,  were  most 
conspicuous  in  advancing  and  maintaining  the  cause 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  educational  enterprise,  seems  not 
only  appropriate  but  necessary. 

Of  Mr.  Cabell  himself  it  needs  only  to  be  said 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     115 

that  he  was  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly, 
either  as  delegate  or  Senator,  for  about  thirty  years; 
that  he  was  a  Visitor  and  the  Rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity, which  he  did  so  much  to  create;  that  he  was 
"a  man  of  national  reputation,"  and  that  he  is  said  to 
have  "declined  Cabinet  appointments  under  Mr. 
Monroe,  if  not  Mr.  Madison."  His  greatest  fame, 
however,  will  continue  to  rest  upon  his  connection 
with  the  establishment  of  the  University  of  Virginia, 
as  illustrated  in  his  correspondence  with  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son. 

Conspicuous  among  the  friends  of  the  University 
in  the  House  was  Briscoe  G.  Baldwin,  of  Augusta 
County.  In  the  debate  on  the  University  bill  in  the 
House  in  January,  1819,  Mr.  Baldwin,  who  had 
made  an  earnest  fight  for  Staunton  as  the  site  for  the 
University,  now  came  forward  "with  a  magnanimity 
only  equalled  by  his  eloquence  to  invoke  the  house  to 
unite  in  support  of  the  University."  Of  Baldwin's 
part  in  this  debate  Cabell  wrote  to  Jefferson  on  Jan- 
uary 1 8,  1819 : 

"Having  left  the  House  before  the  critical  vote  on 
the  site,  to  avoid  the  shock  of  feeling  which  I  should 
have  been  compelled  to  sustain,  I  did  not  hear  Mr. 
Baldwin.  But  I  am  told  the  scene  was  truly  affecting. 
A  great  part  of  the  House  was  in  tears;  and  on  the 
rising  of  the  House,  the  eastern  members  hovered 
around  Mr.  Baldwin  *  *  *  Such  magnanimity 
in  a  defeated  adversary  excited  universal  applause." 

Baldwin  served  in  the  legislature  from  1818  to 
1820;  and  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  of 
1829-30.  He  was  again  elected  to  the  General  As- 
sembly from  Augusta  in  1841,  and  while  a  delegate 
was  chosen  to  fill  a  place  on  the  bench  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals  of  Virginia. 

A  later  member  from  Augusta,  who  is  mentioned 
in  the  Jefferson-Cabell  correspondence  as  interested 


n6    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

on  behalf  of  University  legislation,  was  Chapman 
Johnson,  who  was  in  the  House  in  the  session  of 
1822-1823.  His  aspirations  were  legal  rather  than 
political;  and  he  had  great  and  deserved  reputation 
as  an  able  lawyer.  He  also  was  a  member  of  the 
Convention  of  1829-30;  and  was  a  Visitor  and  sub- 
sequently the  Rector  of  the  University. 

Another  prominent  friend  of  the  University,  fre- 
quently mentioned  by  Mr.  Cabell  in  his  letters  to 
Mr.  Jefferson,  was  General  James  Breckinridge  of 
Botetourt  County.  General  Breckinridge  was  for 
several  years,  at  a  period  prior  to  the  agitation  of  the 
University  project,  a  member  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, and  a  Federalist  leader  in  that  body.  He 
represented  the  Botetourt  district  in  Congress  from 
1809  to  1817;  and  was  a  candidate  of  his  party 
against  James  Monroe  for  Governor  of  the  State. 
General  Breckinridge  was  a  brother  of  John  Breck- 
inridge, of  Kentucky,  who  had  at  one  time  practised 
law  in  Albemarle  County,  and  who  introduced  in  the 
Legislature  of  that  State  the  famous  "Kentucky  Res- 
olutions of  1798,"  drawn  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  Nicholas 
and  himself.  General  Breckinridge  was  a  member 
of  the  first  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  University, 
which  consisted  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  was  the 
Rector,  Mr.  Madison,  Mr.  Chapman  Johnson,  Gen- 
eral Breckinridge,  Mr.  Robert  B.  Taylor,  General 
John  H.  Cocke  and  Mr.  Joseph  C.  Cabell.  At  the 
time  of  his  advocacy  of  the  University's  interests 
General  Breckinridge  had  returned  to  the  General 
Assembly  as  a  member  of  the  House  from  Botetourt. 

Yet  another  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates, 
conspicuous  for  the  zeal  and  ability  with  which  he 
supported  the  University  measures,  was  Mr.  George 
Loyall,  of  Norfolk.  Mr.  Loyall  was  born  at  Nor- 
folk, September  n,  1789.  He  was  wont  to  say  of 
himself  that  he  "came  in  with  the  Constitution."  He 
was  educated  at  William  and  Mary  College;  and 
afterwards  went  to  England,  and  spent  two  years  in 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     117 

London.  He  began  the  practice  of  law  in  his  native 
town  about  1823,  and  in  1825  was  elected  from  Nor- 
folk to  the  House  of  Delegates.  His  talents  were  of 
a  commanding  character,  and  he  was  in  1829-30  a 
member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention;  and  in 
1829  was  a  candidate  for  Congress  from  the  Nor- 
folk District.  The  certificate  of  election  was 
awarded  to  his  opponent,  Mr.  Thomas  Newton; 
but  Mr.  Loyall  contested  the  election.  On  the  mo- 
tion "that  George  Loyall  is  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the 
2ist  Congress  of  the  United  States,  as  the  representa- 
tive from  the  district  in  Virginia  composed  of  the 
counties  of  Norfolk,  Nansemond,  Elizabeth  City, 
Princess  Anne  and  the  Borough  of  Norfolk,"  he  was 
awarded  the  seat  by  a  substantial  majority.  This 
victory  was  followed  by  his  re-election  to  the  22nd 
Congress,  "badly  defeating  his  opponent  who  had 
been  entrenched  for  a  long  period  in  that  position." 
During  his  service  in  the  General  Assembly,  the  Con- 
vention, and  these  two  sessions  of  Congress,  a  warm 
friendship  sprang  up  between  Gordon  and  Mr. 
Loyall,  which  was  illustrated  by  the  former's  giving 
one  of  his  sons,  born  in  1829,  the  name  of  his  friend. 
Mr.  Loyall  was  subsequently  appointed  Naval  Agent 
at  Norfolk  by  President  Jackson,  and  reappointed 
by  President  Polk;  and  continued  in  the  office  until 
the  period  of  the  War  between  the  States.  He  was 
for  a  number  of  years  an  influential  member  of  the 
Board  of  Visitors  of  the  University.  Mr.  Loyall 
was  a  stalwart  supporter  of  "the  schools  of  Jeffer- 
sonian  and  Jacksonian  democracy,  and  a  strong  ad- 
vocate of  free  trade."  In  the  dissensions  that  arose 
among  the  Democrats  over  the  Bank  Controversy, 
Nullification,  and  other  questions  of  the  period,  Gor- 
don, as  hereafter  narrated,  antagonized  the  adminis- 
tration of  Jackson;  but  his  friendship  and  admira- 
tion for  Mr.  Loyall  continued  as  long  as  he  lived. 
Mr.  Loyall's  death  occurred  in  Norfolk  in  February, 
1868. 


n8     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Conspicuous  among  the  younger  members  of  the 
House  of  Delegates  in  the  later  sessions  of  Gordon's 
membership  was  James  Murray  Mason,  grandson  of 
George  Mason,  of  Gunston,  the  author  of  the  "Bill 
of  Rights,"  himself  destined  to  add  lustre  to  a  great 
Virginia  name  as  United  States  Senator,  author  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850,  and  commissioner 
to  England,  with  John  Slidell,  in  1861  from  the  Con- 
federate States  of  America.  He  was  a  strict  con- 
structionist  of  the  State-Rights  party,  and  during  his 
service  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  was  in  the 
thick  of  the  fray  over  slavery.  For  the  Virginians  of 
the  old  school  his  name  was  indelibly  associated  with 
the  pathetic  scene  in  the  Senate  in  1850,  when  he 
read  to  that  august  body,  in  the  presence  of  its  author, 
»vho  sat  by  him  with  the  mark  of  death  on  his  face, 
the  last  speech  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  whose  theme  was 
the  tremendous  question,  "How  can  the  Union  be 
preserved?" 

Within  the  period  of  Gordon's  activities  in  the 
House  of  Delegates  the  Governors  of  the  Common- 
wealth were  James  P.  Preston,  from  December  i, 
1816,  to  December  i,  1819;  Thomas  Mann  Ran- 
dolph, from  December  i,  1819,  to  December  i, 
1822;  James  Pleasants,  Jr.,  from  December  i,  1822, 
to  December  i,  1825;  John  Tyler  from  December  i, 
1825,  to  March,  1827;  and  William  B.  Giles  from 
March,  1827,  to  March,  1830. 

The  office  of  Governor,  from  1776,  was  esteemed 
by  the  earlier  Virginians  as  the  most  exalted 
and  distinguished  public  position  in  the  gift  of  the 
Virginia  people;  and  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  in 
the  later  half  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century  for  a  United  States  Senator 
to  resign  his  seat  in  the  Federal  Senate  to  assume  the 
executive  duties  of  Governor  of  Virginia.  The  roll 
of  those  who  have  occupied  the  office  from  the  begin- 
ning has  been  and  continues  a  highly  honorable  one; 
but  the  earlier  names  of  the  Chief  Magistrates  of  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     119 

State  appear  in  the  lapse  of  time  to  shine  with  an 
ever-increasing  lustre.  Beginning  with  Patrick 
Henry,  they  embrace,  among  others  less  distin- 
guished only  in  degree,  those  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
Thomas  Nelson,  junior;  Benjamin  Harrison,  Ed- 
mund Randolph,  Beverly  Randolph,  Henry  Lee, 
Robert  Brooke,  James  Monroe,  John  Page  of  "Rose- 
well,"  William  H.  Cabell,  John  Tyler,  Peyton  Ran- 
dolph, James  Barbour,  and  Wilson  Gary  Nicholas; 
the  last  named  being  the  immediate  predecessor  of 
Governor  Preston.  Under  the  Constitution  of  1776, 
and  also  under  that  of  1829-30,  the  Governor  was 
elected  by  the  joint  ballot  of  the  two  houses  of  the 
General  Assembly,  as  in  the  case  of  United  States 
Senators ;  and  this  method  of  election  continued  until 
the  Constitution  of  1850,  when  the  office  became 
elective  by  the  people. 

Governor  Preston  was  one  of  that  distinguished 
family,  among  whose  members  have  been  orators, 
statesmen  and  soldiers,  who  have  illustrated  in  their 
civic  and  military  careers  the  virtues  and  talents  of 
the  Scotch-Irishman  in  America.  John  Preston,  the 
grandfather  of  Governor  James  P.  Preston,  emi- 
grated to  Pennsylvania  from  Londonderry,  and  came 
thence  with  the  tide  of  Scotch-Irish  immigration 
southward,  which,  settling  the  Shenandoah  Valley  of 
Virginia,  passed  onward  into  the  Mecklenburg  sec- 
tion of  North  Carolina,  and  spread  its  children  and 
descendants  throughout  the  Southwest  and  the  West. 
He  served  in  the  State  Senate,  and  during  the  War  of 
1812  was  a  colonel  in  the  United  States  Army,  and 
was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Chrystler's  Field.  In 
his  administration  the  University  of  Virginia  was 
established,  and  a  Revision  of  the  Code  of  Virginia 
was  made. 

Of  Preston's  successor  in  the  Executive  office,  Col- 
onel Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  some  account  has 
been  given  in  the  preceding  pages.  He  was  followed 
by  Governor  James  Pleasants,  junior,  who  had 


120    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

already  had  a  large  experience  in  public  life.  He 
had  represented  the  county  of  Goochland  in  the 
House  of  Delegates,  and  in  1803  had  been  chosen 
clerk  of  that  body,  which  office  he  filled  for  seven 
years.  Subsequently  he  was  elected  to  Congress, 
where  he  remained  until  1819.  In  1819  he  was 
elected  Senator  from  Virginia,  and  held  that  office 
at  the  time  he  was  elected  Governor  in  1822. 

On  December  15,  1822,  Gordon  wrote  from 
Richmond  to  Mrs.  Gordon  at  Edgeworth,  "We  have 
elected  Mr.  Pleasants  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  our  Governor;  and  Colonel  John  Taylor  of 
Caroline  will  most  probably  take  his  place."  Later 
he  served  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1829- 
30.  It  has  been  said  of  him  that  "although  twice 
appointed  to  judicial  position,  he  declined  the 
honors  offered  him,  and  retired  to  Goochland  Coun- 
ty, where  on  November  9,  1836,  he  closed  a  well- 
spent  life.  He  died  universally  regretted  and 
greatly  esteemed  for  his  many  public  and  private 
virtues." 

One  of  his  great  characteristics  as  a  successful 
politician  was  his  ability  to  make  and  keep  friends. 
"James  Pleasants  never  made  an  enemy  nor  lost  a 
friend,"  was  the  noble  eulogium  bestowed  upon  him 
by  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke. 

In  a  letter  to  his  wife  written  soon  after  Gover- 
nor Pleasants'  election  by  the  legislature  to  the  office 
of  Governor,  Gordon  gives  the  following  graphic 
and  pleasing  pen-picture  of  him: 

"He  is  rather  beyond  the  ordinary  height,  a  little 
inclined  to  corpulency,  with  a  form  apparently  mus- 
cular, and  indicating  more  of  strength  than  agility. 
His  countenance  is  expressive  of  a  composed  good- 
ness of  heart;  and  the  plainness  of  his  first  manner 
shows  you  at  one  glance  how  superior  is  the  native 
Quakerism  of  his  address  to  any  affectation  of  dig- 
nity which  his  high  station  in  life  may  be  supposed 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     121 

to  require.  His  hair  is  red,  his  complexion  san- 
guineous, the  forehead  not  high  or  full,  but 
broader  than  usual,  the  eyebrows  small  and  dispro- 
portionate to  the  face  and  forehead.  His  eyes  are 
full,  large  and  blue,  with  an  expression  of  softness 
and  sense.  His  mouth  is  large,  and  expresses,  to- 
gether with  the  eyes,  a  natural  willingness  to  smile. 
His  whole  appearance  and  manner  indicate  an 
amiability  of  heart  and  a  virtuous  moderation,  which, 
while  it  seems  to  yield  to  the  opinions  and  wishes  of 
others,  excites  in  them  a  confidence  that  so  much 
goodness,  patience  and  sense  can  be  rarely  wrong; 
and  you  see  at  once  that  his  influence,  like  oil, 
smoothes  the  asperities  and  roughnesses  of  govern- 
ment and  makes  the  whole  machinery  play  cheerily 
together." 

Of  the  two  other  Governors  of  Gordon's  legisla- 
tive experience,  Tyler  and  Giles,  accounts  are  given 
in  subsequent  pages. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IN    THE    GENERAL    ASSEMBLY POLITICS    AND    POLI- 
CIES  WILLIAM  B.  GILES. 

Although  the  most  noteworthy  and  important 
work  done  by  Gordon  as  a  member  of  the  General 
Assembly  was  that  in  connection  with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  University  of  Virginia,  his  life  as  a 
legislator  was  a  diligent  and  industrious  one;  and  he 
left  a  marked  impress  upon  the  legislation  of  the 
period. 

The  posthumous  reputation  of  his  oratorical 
power,  a  gift  with  which  he  was  unusually  endowed, 
even  in  that  day  of  oratory  and  forensic  expression, 
has  served  to  obscure  the  just  proportions  of  his 
eminence  as  a  lawyer.  In  the  earlier  years  of  his 
professional  career  he  had  been  a  diligent  student 
of  law  as  a  science;  and  his  knowledge  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  subject  was  substantial  and  accurate. 
From  the  time  of  his  first  election  to  the  House  of 
Delegates  he  was  an  influential  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Courts  of  Justice,  and  during  much  the 
larger  part  of  his  service  its  chairman.  It  was  no 
inconspicious  tribute  to  his  legal  ability  to  have  held 
this  position  in  a  body  for  the  most  part  composed  of 
lawyers  of  ability,  the  strongest  of  whom  were  the 
members  of  this  committee. 

When  he  entered  Congress  his  legal  acquirements 
were  at  once  recognized  by  the  Speaker,  Mr.  An- 
drew Stevenson,  himself  a  Virginian,  and  familiar 
with  Gordon's  standing  in  his  profession,  in  his  ap- 
pointment to  the  much  coveted  position  of  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House.  In 
1824,  when  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Courts 
of  Justice  of  the  House  of  Delegates,  he  performed 
a  notable  work  in  connection  with  the  consolidation 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     123 

for  the  first  time  into  one  act  of  the  several  acts 
fixing  the  fees  of  officers.     In  1827  he  reported  from 
the  same   committee,   with  amendments,   "a  bill  to 
prescribe  the  method  of  proceeding  in  suits  or  peti- 
tions for  divorce,"  and  "a  bill  providing  for  a  re- 
vision of  the  laws  concerning  the  judiciary,  and  judi- 
cial proceedings,"  both  of  which  measures  bear  the 
impress  of  his  knowledge  and  labor;   and  these  were 
followed  in  the  same  year  by  "a  bill  to  punish  the 
attempt  to  poison,"  "a  bill  for  the  further  limitation 
of    real    actions,"    and    "a    bill    for    changing    the 
punishment  of  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  in  certain 
cases,"  which  were  also  in  large  measure  the  results 
of  his  acquirements  and  industry.     In  1828  he  still 
continued  to  occupy  the  chairmanship  of  this  com- 
mittee, and  reported  the  important  bill  requiring  all 
clerks  "to  index  deeds  in  the  name  of  both  grantor 
and  grantee,"  a  requirement  which  previously  had 
not  existed  in  the  Commonwealth.     At  the  same  ses- 
sion he  reported  various  bills,   "concerning  pleas," 
"concerning  the  statute  of  descents  and  distributions," 
"concerning  the  limitations   of  actions,"   and   "con- 
cerning motions   against  sheriffs."      Where  he  was 
not  himself  the  author  and  draftsman  of  these  sev- 
eral measures,  which  formulated  much  of  the  statute 
law  of  the  period,  he  always  supervised  and  directed 
them  with  such  a  knowledge  of  their  scope  and  sig- 
nificance as  enabled  him  to  discuss  them  in  debate 
intelligently,  and  generally  with  success.     In  an  epoch 
when  the  journals  of  the  legislature  disclose  that  the 
enactment  of  innumerable  laws  was  not  the  prevail- 
ing conception  of  legislative  duty,  and  when  the  dis- 
cussion of  great    governmental    principles    was    re- 
garded as  of  no  less  importance  than  the  making  of 
statutes,  Gordon  appears  to  have  been  equally  indus- 
trious, energetic  and  forceful  in  either  direction. 

In  a  letter  to  his  wife  in  December,  1818,  during 
the  first  session  of  his  legislative  service  he  gives  the 
following  account  of  the  routine  life  of  a  delegate: 


i24    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"I  have  not  read  as  much  as  I  expected  I  should, 
although  I  have  found  some  time  to  occupy  in  that 
way.  I  go  on  committee  directly  after  breakfast, 
where  I  remain  till  the  House  meets,  and  there  until 
three  o'clock;  after  which  I  have  to  get  dinner,  and 
then  it  is  night.  So  that  the  life  of  a  Virginian  law- 
maker is  one  of  no  ordinary  toil,  if  he  does  his  duty." 


Of  the  politics  of  the  period  he  possessed  a 
ledge,  founded  upon  extensive  reading  and  a  culti- 
vated familiarity  with  passing  public  events,  which 
gave  him  great  influence  in  his  application  of  it,  in 
discussion  and  debate,  to  the  principles  which  were 
profoundly  rooted  in  his  conception  of  republican 
government.  The  Jeffersonian  ideas  of  individualism, 
of  economy  and  simplicity  in  the  affairs  of  adminis- 
tration, of  antagonism  to  the  centralizing  tenden- 
cies of  the  Hamiltonian  Federalists,  and  of  the  basic 
right  of  the  people  to  local  self-government,  were 
fixed  principles  with  him.  "Freedom  of  religion, 
freedom  of  the  press,  freedom  of  commerce,  no  sus- 
pension of  habeas  corpus,  and  no  standing  army"  — 
this  formulation  by  Jefferson  of  the  underlying 
meaning  of  constitutional  democracy  contained  for 
Gordon  the  very  essence  of  liberty.  For  the  sage 
of  Monticello  himself  he  entertained  a  reverence 
and  respect  that  were  founded  upon  his  political 
opinions  and  emphasized  by  an  intimate  and  per- 
sonal affection.  The  feeling  was  one  which  charac- 
terized all  the  younger  men  of  the  Jeffersonian  school 
who  came  within  the  sphere  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  per- 
sonal influence  and  charm.  After  the  war  between 
the  States  was  ended,  and  Gordon  had  long  since 
passed  from  the  field  of  action,  this  attitude  to- 
wards their  great  leader  was  aptly  expressed  in  con- 
versation by  one  of  them  then  surviving,  Mr.  Hugh 
Blair  Grigsby,  in  the  observation,  "It  is  hard  for 
those  of  a  later  generation  to  realize  how  we  young 
Republicans  loved  Mr.  Jefferson." 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     125 

It  was  no  insignificant  quality  of  the  man  who 
could  inspire  the  wrath  of  Federalists,  like  Luther 
Martin,  to  exhaust  their  expletives  in  denouncing 
their  enemies  as  being  "as  great  scoundrels  as  Tom 
Jefferson,"  that  he  was  enabled  to  win  to  himself 
not  only  the  intellects  but  the  ardent  affections  of  his 
political  followers. 

Virginia,  during  the  period  of  Gordon's  service 
in  the  legislature,  was  strongly  under  the  spell  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  dominating  influence  and  opinion; 
and  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  took  no  small 
part  in  impressing  that  influence  on  the  country  at 
large  by  the  frequent  discussion  of  governmental 
principles  and  the  official  adoption  of  political  re- 
solves. So  we  find  Gordon,  in  1820,  advocating  and 
supporting  the  resolutions  offered  and  adopted 
in  regard  to  the  Missouri  Compromise — a  state 
paper  so  striking  in  its  enunciation  of  the  tenets  of 
Jeffersonian  republicanism  as  to  warrant  its  repro- 
duction here  in  full.  It  was  one  of  the  early  bugle- 
blasts  from  the  South  which  sounded  the  alarm  of 
a  later  and  tremendous  tragic  conflict  over  State- 
Rights  and  Slavery.  Missouri  was  seeking  admis- 
sion to  the  Union;  and  the  General  Assembly  of 
Virginia  in  these  resolutions  expressed  to  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  the  opinion  of  the  people 
of  Virginia  upon  the  question  of  the  terms  of  her 
admission. 

"i.  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  have 
no  power  under  the  Federal  Constitution  to  dictate 
to  the  people  of  the  Missouri  territory  what  prin- 
ciples shall  govern  them  in  the  formation  of  their 
constitution  or  system  of  government  or  in  the  adop- 
tion of  regulations  respecting  their  property,  but 
are  simply  bound  to  guarantee  to  them  (in  common 
with  the  other  States)  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment. 

"2.     That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  are 


126    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

bound  in  good  faith  by  the  treaty  of  cession  of  1805 
to  admit  the  good  people  of  the  Missouri  Territory 
into  the  Union  upon  equal  terms  with  the  existing 
States. 

"3.  That  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  will 
support  the  good  people  of  Missouri  in  their  just 
rights  to  admission  into  the  Union,  and  will  co- 
operate with  them  in  resisting  with  manly  fortitude 
any  attempt  which  Congress  may  make  to  impose 
restraints  or  restrictions,  as  the  price  of  their  admis- 
sion, not  authorized  by  the  great  principles  of  the 
Constitution,  and  in  violation  of  their  rights,  liberty 
and  happiness. 

"4.  That  the  Senators  from  this  State  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  be  instructed,  and  the  rep- 
resentatives requested,  to  use  their  best  efforts  in 
procuring  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Missouri 
into  the  Union,  upon  the  principles  contained  in  the 
foregoing  resolutions,  and  in  resisting  any  attempt 
which  shall  be  made  in  Congress  to  impose  condi- 
tions upon  the  people  of  Missouri  not  warranted  by 
the  treaty  of  cession  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States." 

These  resolutions,  adopted  by  her  legislature  on 
January  n,  1820,  constituted  Virginia's  defiance  to 
the  attempt  that  had  been  made  in  the  preceding 
session  of  Congress  to  forbid  slavery  or  involuntary 
servitude  in  Missouri  except  as  a  punishment  for 
crime,  when  the  Territory  had  applied  for  admission 
as  a  State — an  appearance  of  the  slavery  question 
so  surprising  and  so  sudden  and  so  anxious,  that  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  moved  to  say  of  it,  that  it  startled 
him  "like  a  fire-bell  in  the  night."  The  Missouri 
bill  had  failed,  after  an  acrimonious  and  stubborn 
struggle,  which,  then  begun,  was  renewed  with  un- 
abated stubbornness  and  acrimony  in  the  next  ses- 
sion of  Congress.  Then  the  deft  and  guiding  hand 
of  Henry  Clay  formulated  the  Missouri  Compromise 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     127 

Act  of  1820,  prohibiting  slavery  thenceforward 
north  of  the  line  of  36°3o';  and  "the  moderates" 
of  South  and  North  alike  supported  and  enacted 
it.  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  with  picturesque 
vituperation  denounced  the  Compromise  Act  as  "a 
dirty  bargain"  and  those  who  voted  for  it  as  "dough- 
faces." Jefferson  wrote  of  it  afterwards  that  he 
considered  it  "  at  once  as  the  knell  of  the  Union. 
It  is  hushed  indeed  for  the  moment.  But  this  is  a 
reprieve  only,  not  a  final  sentence."  He  continued: 
"The  coincidence  of  a  marked  principle,  moral  and 
political,  with  a  geographical  line,  once  conceived, 
I  feared  would  never  more  be  obliterated  from  the 
mind;  that  it  would  be  recurring  on  every  occasion, 
and  renewing  irritations,  until  it  would  kindle  such 
mutual  and  mortal  hatred  as  to  render  separation 
preferable  to  eternal  discord." 

The  period  was  one  of  tremendous  political  sig- 
nificance in  its  formulation  of  great  questions  of 
grave  moment;  and  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  in 
which  were  gathered  many  of  the  finest  intellects  of 
the  Commonwealth  and  of  the  country,  spoke  upon 
all  of  these,  as  occasion  arose,  with  no  uncertain 
sound. 

On  February  12,  1820,  Gordon  voted  with  the 
majority  in  the  House  of  Delegates  in  favor  of  a 
resolution  declaring  it  to  be  "the  opinion  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  Virginia  that  the  law  of  Congress 
establishing  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  is  not 
authorized  by  the  Constitution;"  thus  taking  position 
upon  a  question  which  later  gave  rise  to  great  dis- 
sension in  the  Republican  party,  growing  out  of  the 
removal  of  the  deposits,  the  senatorial  censure  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  bitterly  con- 
tested "expunging  resolution"  of  Benton,  the  fight 
over  the  "pet  banks,"  and  the  final  establishment  of 
Gordon's  great  scheme  of  the  Independent  Treasury. 
The  legislature's  resolution  opposing  the  establish- 
ment or  the  bank  on  the  ground  of  its  unconstitu- 


128     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

tionality  was  not  inconsistent  with  its  later  resolu- 
tions, reported  to  the  House  of  Representatives  by 
Gordon,  when  a  member  of  that  body  as  hereafter 
narrated ;  for  the  last-named  resolves  were  also  based 
upon  what  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  re- 
garded as  an  unconstitutional  usurpation  of  authority 
by  the  Federal  Executive. 

In  the  following  session  of  1820-21  Gordon  voted 
in  the  House  of  Delegates  with  a  majority  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  against  eighteen  in  favor 
of  a  vigorous  declaration  of  the  doctrine  of  State 
sovereignty,  and  a  protest  against  the  assumption 
of  jurisdiction  by  the  Federal  Supreme  Court  in  the 
case  of  Cohens  vs.  Virginia: 

"Resolved,  That  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  have  no  rightful  authority,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, to  examine  and  correct  the  judgment  for  which 
the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  has  been  'cited  and 
admonished  to  be  and  appear  at  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,'  and  that  the  General  Assembly 
do  hereby  enter  their  most  solemn  protest  against 
the  jurisdiction  of  that  Court  over  the  matter." 

This  pronunciamento  declared  the  attitude  of  the 
Commonwealth  towards  what  it  regarded  as  an  un- 
warranted assumption  of  jurisdiction  over  a  sovereign 
State  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
then  presided  over  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall.  The 
Cohens  were  indicted  by  the  State  Court  at  Norfolk 
for  a  violation  of  the  State  anti-lottery  statute.  The 
defendants  claimed  the  protection  of  an  act  of  Con- 
gress relating  to  the  District  of  Columbia.  Judg- 
ment went  against  them ;  and  being  without  right  of 
appeal  to  any  Virginia  court,  they  appealed  directly 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

In  February,  1826,  Gordon's  name  is  found  among 
the  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  ayes  recorded  on 
the  journal  of  the  House  of  Delegates  as  against 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     129 

twenty-three  noes,  in  favor  of  a  resolution  declaring 
that  "the  imposition  of  taxes  and  duties  by  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
tecting domestic  manufactures  is  an  unconstitutional 
exercise  of  power,  and  is  highly  oppressive  and  par- 
tial in  its  operation." 

In  February,  1829,  he  supported  with  voice  and 
vote  a  series  of  resolutions  adopted  by  the  House, 
which  were  as  significant  in  the  doctrine  they  as- 
serted, though  not  in  the  remedy  they  proposed, 
as  was  the  nullification  ordinance  of  South  Carolina 
adopted  in  1832.  By  them  it  was  resolved: 

"i.  That  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
being  a  federative  compact  between  sovereign  States 
in  construing  which  no  common  arbiter  is  known, 
each  State  has  the  right  to  construe  the  compact  for 
itself. 

«2  *         *         5(C 

"3.  That  this  General  Assembly  of  Virginia, 
actuated  by  the  desire  of  guarding  the  Constitution 
from  all  violation;  anxious  to  preserve  and  per- 
petuate the  Union,  and  to  execute  with  fidelity  the 
trust  reposed  in  it  by  the  people  as  one  of  the  high 
contracting  parties,  feels  itself  bound  to  declare,  and 
it  hereby  most  solemnly  declares,  its  deliberate  con- 
viction that  the  acts  of  Congress,  usually  denominated 
the  Tariff  laws,  passed  avowedly  for  the  protection 
of  domestic  manufactures,  are  not  authorized  by  the 
plain  construction,  true  intent,  and  meaning  of  the 
Constitution.  Also,  That  the  said  acts  are  partial  in 
their  operation,  impolitic,  and  oppressive  to  a  large 
portion  of  the  people  of  the  Union,  and  ought  to 
be  repealed." 

The  vote  was  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  to  sev- 
enty-five in  favor  of  the  adoption  of  these  resolves, 
which  embodied  a  legislative  expression  of  the  Jeffer- 
9 


130    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

sonian  republicanism  of  Virginia  on  the  question  of 
a  protective  tariff.  In  December,  1825,  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son had  written  to  William  B.  Giles,  with  an  under- 
standing which  penetrated  to  the  core  of  the  sub- 
ject: 

"Under  the  power  to  regulate  commerce,  the  gov- 
ernment assumes  indefinitely  that  also  over  agricul- 
ture and  manufactures;  and  calls  it  regulation  to  take 
the  earnings  of  one  of  these  branches  of  industry, 
and  that,  too,  the  most  depressed,  and  put  them  into 
the  pockets  of  the  other,  the  most  flourishing  of  all." 

The  whole  doctrine  of  strict  constitutional  con- 
struction appeared  at  this  period  to  the  individuals 
in  the  State-Rights  party  of  Virginia,  no  less  than 
to  its  General  Assembly,  to  be  threatened.  Jeffer- 
son was  in  political  retirement  at  Monticello,  op- 
pressed with  the  physical  infirmities  of  age,  and 
anxious  for  some  portion  of  the  peace  of  mind  to 
which  he  thought  his  services  had  entitled  his  later 
years.  But  his  followers  still  looked  to  him  as  to 
an  oracle.  On  December  10,  1825,  Gordon  wrote 
to  him  from  Richmond  as  follows: 

"I  am  reluctant  to  intrude  on  your  retirement,  and 
certainly  not  disposed  to  involve  you  in  the  strife 
of  politics.  Yet  a  crisis  in  our  public  affairs,  which 
seems  to  threaten  all  the  principles  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  emboldens  me  to  address  you.  You 
see  by  Governor  Pleasants'  communication  to  the 
legislature  that  he  recommends  an  instruction  to  our 
Senators,  on  the  subjects  of  the  tariff  and  roads  and 
canals;  whilst  the  sweeping  message  of  President 
Adams  leaves  little  room  to  hope  that  we  shall  be 
able  to  save  even  a  vestige  of  the  Constitution.  Our 
brethren  of  the  western  part  of  Virginia  are  most 
of  them  friendly  to  the  power  usurped  by  the  Gen- 
eral Government  on  the  subject  of  internal  improve- 
ment, their  interest  luring  them  from  an  impartial 
judgment.  They  have  more  than  once  evidenced 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     131 

in  the  legislature  of  this  State  their  sentiment  on  that 
subject  by  voting  for,  as  Senator,  a  gentleman  known 
to  be  latitudinary  in  the  construction  of  the  Consti- 
tution in  that  particular;  whilst  the  General  Govern- 
ment at  the  same  time  holds  out  inducements,  which 
may  fairly  be  called  bribes  to  the  States,  and  par- 
ticularly to  Virginia,  on  this  great  subject. 

"What  then  can  we  do,  and  to  whom  can  we  look 
but  to  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  to  aid  us  by  their 
counsel  and  wisdom  in  sustaining  the  principles  of 
the  Government,  which  they  have  taught  us  to  be- 
lieve were  those  only  by  which  the  safety  of  the 
States  and  the  bonds  of  union  could  be  maintained? 
Shall  the  authorities  of  the  States  'fold  their  arms 
in  inglorious  indolence,'  whilst  we  hear  proclaimed 
from  the  President  of  the  United  States  sentiments 
subversive  of  every  principle  of  a  limited  govern- 
ment— indeed,  reviving  the  antiquated  doctrine  of 
the  divine  right  of  power;  spurning  the  opinion  of 
'constituents,'  lest  rulers  should  be  palsied;  proclaim- 
ing that  'Liberty  is  Power,  and  that  the  tenure  by 
which  power  is  held  is  the  moral  purpose  of  the 
Creator  to  exercise  it  for  ends  of  beneficence,'  etc? 
Is  this  the  language  of  an  American  President  acting 
under  a  written  Constitution  of  defined  and  specified 
grants  of  power,  or  of  a  European  despot  who  rules 
by  the  grace  of  God? 

"But,  sir,  I  will  not  fatigue  you  with  comments 
on  this  extraordinary  State  paper.  Should  you  deem 
it  wise  that  the  legislature  of  Virginia  should  move 
at  this  time  in  relation  to  any  of  the  subjects  in  which 
the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  true  interpretation 
of  the  Constitution  are  involved,  any  communica- 
tion you  think  proper  to  make  will  be  treated  with 
all  the  delicacy,  which  an  entire  confidence  in  your 
wisdom  and  a  profound  personal  respect  can  in- 
spire. 

"No  inducement  could  have  tempted  me  to  tres- 
pass on  your  time  but  where  the  safety  and  happiness 


132     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

of  the  community  are  concerned;  and  I  have  ap- 
pealed with  confidence  to  one  whose  life  has  been 
devoted  to  the  service  of  his  country  and  of  man- 
kind. 

"We  have  as  yet  taken  no  step  relating  to  the 
University.  Mr.  Cabell  is  absent  from  some  family 
misfortune,  and  will  be  so  until  after  Christmas. 
The  sentiments  towards  the  University,  so  far  as  I 
can  learn,  are  of  the  most  friendly  kind;  and  I  sin- 
cerely hope  that  we  shall  hereafter  have  little  diffi- 
culty in  completing  the  institution  in  a  way  that  will 
fulfill  the  expectations  of  its  friends  and  of  the  world. 
If  Mr.  Adams'  University  succeeds,  we  may  have 
a  fearful  rival".  With  sentiments  of  the  most  per- 
fect and  entire  respect,  Your  obedient  servant." 

Jefferson's  reply  written  from  Monticello  on  Jan- 
uary i,  1826,  just  six  months  prior  to  his  death, 
while  exhibiting  some  of  the  impatience  which  char- 
acterized much  of  his  later  correspondence,  evinced 
no  diminution  of  his  intellectual  powers,  or  of  his 
fixed  views  upon  the  political  questions  of  the  period. 

"I  cannot  blame  you,"  he  wrote  to  Gordon,  "if 
you  have  been  thinking  hardly  of  my  long  delay  in 
answering  youl*  favor  of  loth  ult,  but  knowing  the 
state  of  my  health  these  thoughts  will  vanish  from 
your  mind.  It  is  now  three  weeks  since  a  re-ascer- 
bation  of  my  painful  complaint  has  confined  me  to 
the  house  and  indeed  to  my  couch.  Required  to 
be  constantly  recumbent  I  write  slowly  and  with 
difficulty.  Yesterday  for  the  first  time  I  was  able 
to  leave  the  house  and  to  resume  a  posture  which 
enables  me  to  begin  to  answer  the  letters  which  have 
been  accumulating,  and  I  take  up  yours  first. 

"Weakened  in  body  by  infirmities  and  in  mind  by 
age,  now  far  gone  in  my  eighty-third  year,  reading 
one  newspaper  only  and  forgetting  immediately  what 
I  read  in  that,  I  am  unable  to  give  counsel  in  cases 
of  difficulty,  and  our  present  one  is  truly  a  case  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     133 

difficulty.  It  is  but  too  evident  that  the  branches 
of  our  foreign  department  of  government,  executive, 
judiciary,  and  legislative,  are  in  combination  to  usurp 
the  powers  of  the  domestic  branch  also  reserved  to 
the  States,  and  consolidate  themselves  into  a  single 
government  without  limitation  of  powers.  I  will 
not  trouble  you  with  details  of  the  instances,  which 
are  threadbare  and  unheeded.  The  only  question 
is,  what  is  to  be  done?  Shall  we  give  up  the  ship? 
No,  by  heavens,  while  a  hand  remains  able  to  keep 
the  deck!  Shall  we,  with  the  hotheaded  Georgian, 
stand  at  once  to  our  arms?  Not  yet,  nor  until  the 
evil,  the  only  greater  one  than  separation,  shall  be 
all  but  upon  us,  that  of  living  under  a  government 
of  discretion.  Between  these  alternatives  there  can 
be  no  hesitation.  But  again,  what  are  we  to  do? 
I  am  glad  I  did  not  answer  earlier,  for  a  fortnight 
ago  might  have  called  for  a  different  answer.  Since 
that  the  South  Carolina  resolutions  are  become 
known,  Van  Buren's  motion,  and  Baylie's  proposi- 
tion to  yield  the  power  of  roads  and  canals,  provided 
it  be  regularly  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution, 
and  guarded  against  abusive  practices  under  it.  We 
had  better  at  present  rest  awhile  on  our  oars,  and 
see  which  way  the  tide  will  set  in  Congress  and  in 
the  State  legislatures.  Perhaps  it  will  be  better  for 
Virginia  to  follow  than  to  take  the  lead  in  whatever 
is  to  be  done.  A  majority  of  the  people  are  against 
us  on  this  question.  The  western  States  have 
especially  been  bribed  by  local  considerations  to  aban- 
don their  antient  brethren,  and  enlist  under  banners 
alien  to  them  in  principles  and  interest.  If  in  this 
state  of  things  we  can  make  such  a  compromise  as 
Baylie  proposes,  we  shall  save,  and  at  the  same  time 
improve  our  Constitution,  for  I  think  that  with  suffi- 
cient guards  it  will  be  a  wholesome  amendment. 
And  not  doubting  but  that  it  comes  from  the  Presi- 
dent himself,  we  may  hope  its  success  under  such 
auspices.  If  I  had  an  opinion  therefore,  it  would 


i34    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

be  for  lying  still  awhile.  But  I  have  none.  I  have 
neither  matter  nor  mind  to  form  one.  And  I  pray 
that  what  I  have  now  hazarded  to  you  as  a  friend 
may  be  sacredly  locked  up  in  your  own  breast.  For 
abandoning,  as  it  is  time,  all  intermeddling  to  the 
generation  now  on  the  stage — the  entire  manage- 
ment of  their  own  affairs,  I  should  deem  it  the 
greatest  of  all  calamities  to  be  inflicted  at  this  period 
of  life  in  embroilment  of  which  I  wish  never  to 
think  again. 

"Yesterday,  the  last  of  the  year,  closed  the  sixty- 
first  of  my  continued  service  to  the  public.  I  came 
into  it  as  soon  as  of  age,  which  was  in  1764,  begin- 
ning with  the  court  of  my  county;  then  their  repre- 
sentative; next,  Congress;  the  revised  Code;  Gov- 
ernor; Congress;  Minister  Plenipotentiary;  Sec- 
retary of  State;  Vice-President ;  President;  Albe- 
marle  and  Central  College;  and  on  my  return  from 
Washington,  the  University,  and  I  may —  [illegi- 
ble]. 

"Is  it  not  time  then,  dear  sir,  to  turn  me  loose? 
Ever  aff'y  yours, 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON." 

"The  hot-headed  Georgian"  to  whom  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son alludes  in  this  letter  was  Governor  George  M. 
Troup  of  Georgia,  who  a  short  time  before  had  un- 
dertaken to  remove  from  that  State  the  Creek  In- 
dians. These  Indians  had  made  a  treaty  with  the 
United  States  by  which  they  agreed  to  surrender 
their  lands;  but  repudiated  the  treaty.  The  State 
of  Georgia  proceeded  to  have  the  lands  surveyed, 
with  a  view  to  causing  the  speedy  removal  of  the 
Indians.  The  Federal  Government  called  on  Troup 
to  suspend  the  survey  until  further  notice;  and  sent 
United  States  troops  to  Georgia  under  General 
Gaines.  Gaines  and  Troup  were  on  the  point  of 
hostilities.  There  was  great  excitement  throughout 
the  State,  and  Troup  called  on  the  people  to  "stand 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     135 

to  their  arms;"  but  at  last  agreed  to  await  the  nego- 
tiation of  a  new  treaty,  under  which  the  Creeks  were 
finally  removed  to  territory  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
The  episode  was  a  notable  one  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  period. 

In  spite  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  diplomatic  attitude  on 
the  subject  of  Mr.  Baylie's  proposed  amendment, 
opposition  to  internal  improvements  by  the  General 
Government  continued  to  be  one  of  the  cardinal 
political  tenets  of  Virginia  republicanism;  and  on 
February  28,  1826,  Gordon  voted  in  the  affirmative 
on  the  following  resolution  on  that  subject,  which 
was  adopted  by  the  House  of  Delegates : 

"That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  does  not 
possess  the  power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  adopt 
a  general  system  of  internal  improvements  in  the 
States,  as  a  national  measure;"  and  "that  the  ap- 
propriation by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to 
construct  roads  and  canals  in  the  States  is  a  viola- 
tion of  the  Constitution." 

'On  the  22nd  of  February,  1827,  on  Gordon's 
motion,  the  report  of  a  committee  "Upon  certain 
points  of  fundamental  law  and  certain  differing 
claims  of  jurisdiction  between  this  State  and  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,"  was  taken  up; 
and  after  discussion  and  debate,  in  which  he  took 
a  conspicious  part,  it  was  adopted  on  the  2d  day  of 
March  following,  upon  his  motion  for  a  recorded 
vote,  by  the  significant  majority  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  ayes  to  forty-seven  noes.  The  report  is 
a  masterly  state  paper  of  the  period,  and  was  penned 
by  William  B.  Giles,  who  had  already  represented 
Virginia  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and 
shortly  after  its  composition  entered  upon  his  first 
term  as  Governor  of  the  State.  The  preamble  and 
resolutions  embodied  in  this  report  of  Mr.  Giles 
seem  to  constitute  so  perspicuous  and  powerful  a 


136    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

presentation  of  the  democratic  doctrine  of  State 
sovereignty  in  its  ultimate  significance,  that  they  are 
given  here  in  their  entirety. 

"The  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  actuated  as 
it  always  has  been  by  the  most  sincere  disposition  for 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  of  these  States,  be- 
lieving that  the  Union  can  only  be  preserved  by 
keeping  the  General  and  State  governments  within 
their  respective  spheres  of  action  as  marked  out  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  being  also 
sincerely  desirous  that  the  General  Government 
should  be  protected  in  the  full  and  free  exercise  of 
all  the  specified  powers  granted  to  it  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  being  at  the  same 
time  deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  its  own  duty 
to  preserve  unimpaired  all  the  rights  of  the  people 
and  government  of  this  State  conferred  upon  it  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  State  and  of  the  United 
States,  finds  itself  reluctantly  constrained  to  enter 
its  most  solemn  protest  against  the  usurpations  of  the 
General  Government,  as  described  in  the  Report  of 
the  Committee. 

"Therefore,  Resolved  that  the  General  Assembly 
in  behalf  of  the  people  and  government  of  this  State, 
does  hereby  most  solemnly  protest  against  the  claim 
or  exercise  of  any  power  whatever  on  the  part  of 
the  General  Government  to  make  internal  improve- 
ments within  the  limits  and  jurisdiction  of  the  sev- 
eral States,  and  particularly  within  the  limits  of  the 
State  of  Virginia — and  also  against  the  claim  or  ex- 
ercise of  any  power  whatever  asserting  or  involving 
a  jurisdiction  over  any  part  of  the  territory  within 
the  limits  of  this  State,  except  over  the  objects  and 
in  the  mode  specified  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

"Resolved,  In  like  manner  that  this  General  As- 
sembly does  most  solemnly  protest  against  the  claim 
or  exercise  of  any  power  whatever  on  the  part  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     137 

the  General  Government  to  protect  domestic  manu- 
factures, the  protection  of  manufactures  not  being 
among  the  grants  of  power  to  the  government  speci- 
fied in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  and 
also  against  the  operation  of  the  Act  of  Congress, 
passed  May  22d,  1824,  entitled  'An  Act  to  amend 
the  several  acts  imposing  duties  or  imports,'  gener- 
ally called  the  Tariff  law,  which  vary  the  distribu- 
tions of  the  proceeds  of  the  labor  of  the  community 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  transfer  property  from  one 
portion  of  the  United  States  to  another,  and  to  take 
private  property  from  the  owner  for  the  benefit  of 
another  person  not  rendering  public  service — as  un- 
constitutional, unwise,  unjust,  unequal  and  oppres- 
sive." 

Of  the  men  of  his  generation  in  Virginia  there 
was  none  who  possessed  a  more  brilliant  contem- 
porary reputation  for  skill  in  debate,  for  eloquence 
and  logic,  and  for  ability  as  a  party  leader,  than  the 
author  of  these  resolutions.  It  has  been  said  of  Mr. 
Giles  that  he  was  "considered  by  John  Randolph 
to  be  in  the  House  of  Representatives  what  Charles 
James  Fox  was  admitted  to  be  in  the  British  House 
of  Commons — the  most  accomplished  debater  that 
his  country  had  ever  seen."  No  one  came  within 
the  radius  of  his  influence  without  being  impressed 
by  him.  His  earliest  appearance  to  Gordon  is 
described  in  a  letter  written  by  the  latter  in  1822: — 
"I  have  seen  Mr.  Giles,  and  was  astonished  at  his 
power  of  conversation,  and  the  rich  and  varied  fund 
of  political  knowledge  which  he  seemed  to  have  on 
every  public  subject."  At  the  time  of  these  resolu- 
tions Giles  had  already  been  a  member  of  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives,  and  had  won  a 
national  distinction,  and  the  undying  hatred  of  the 
Federalists,  by  his  attack  upon  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  which  he 
charged  him  with  corruption  and  peculation.  He 


i3 8     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

had  co-operated  with  Madison  in  the  Virginia  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  procuring  the  passage  of  the  fa- 
mous resolutions  of  1798;  and  had  later  been  a  Sen- 
ator from  Virginia  from  1804  to  1815  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  where  he  held  during  a  large  part  of 
that  period  the  recognized  and  undisputed  position 
of  leader  of  the  Republican  party.  Yet,  like  many 
others  of  his  Virginia  compatriots  who  had  not  dis- 
dained, after  serving  their  State  in  high  position, 
to  continue  in  her  service  wherever  called,  he  had 
returned  in  1826  to  the  House  of  Delegates  of  her 
General  Assembly,  from  which  he  emerged,  during 
its  session,  by  the  votes  of  his  colleagues,  as  Gover- 
nor of  the  Commonwealth,  an  office  esteemed  by  him 
the  loftiest  in  her  gift. 

He  was  a  State-Rights  Jeffersonian  of  the  strictest 
sect;  and  though  the  difference  in  their  years  was 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  Giles  at  this 
time  belonged  to  the  coterie  of  political  patriarchs 
who  still  continued  on  the  scene  of  events,  the  simi- 
larity of  their  political  views  made  a  strong  friend- 
ship between  himself  and  Gordon,  which  survived 
until  Giles'  death. 

Giles  walked  with  a  crutch,  which  seemed  to  lend 
grace  and  dignity  to  his  movements;  and  a  writer 
of  the  period,  describing  him  in  the  Convention  of 
1829-30,  said:  "His  style  of  delivery  was  perfectly 
conversational — no  gesture,  no  effort;  but  in  ease, 
fluency  and  tact  surely  he  had  not  there  his  equal; 
his  words  were  like  honey  pouring  from  an  eastern 
rock."  He  died  in  1830  at  an  advanced  age. 

His  ability  as  a  forceful  and  vigorous  polemical 
writer  was  scarcely  less  than  that  which  he  possessed 
as  a  debater.  He  published  a  speech  on  the  embargo 
laws  in  1808;  political  letters  to  the  people  of  Vir- 
ginia in  1813;  a  series  of  letters  signed  "A  Consti- 
tuent" in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  of  January,  1818, 
against  the  plan  for  a  general  education;  in  April, 
1824,  a  letter  of  invective  against  President  Mon- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     139 

roe. and  Henry  Clay,  for  their  "hobbies,"  the  South 
American  cause,  the  Greek  cause,  Internal  Improve- 
ments and  the  Tariff;  and  he  also  addressed  a  letter 
to  Judge  Marshall,  disclaiming  the  expressions,  but 
not  the  general  sentiments,  in  regard  to  Washington, 
which  are  ascribed  to  him  in  the  Chief  Justice's 
"Life"  of  the  first  President. 


CHAPTER  IX 

IN  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY LAFAYETTE'S  VISIT— 

JEFFERSON'S  LOTTERY 

In  1824  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  adopted 
by  unanimous  vote  a  resolution  requesting  President 
James  Monroe  to  invite  the  Marquis  Lafayette, 
whose  presence  in  the  dark  days  of  the  Revolution 
had  inspired  and  aided  the  struggling  colonists,  and 
the  memory  of  whose  achievements  was  still  cher- 
ished by  the  young  republic,  .to  revisit  the  country 
whose  independence  he  had  done  so  much  to  secure. 
The  invitation  was  accordingly  extended;  and  La- 
fayette, then  an  old  man,  accepted  it,  and  sailed 
from  Havre,  July  12,  1824,  in  an  American  mer- 
chant vessel,  arriving  in  New  York  after  a  voyage  of 
a  month  and  two  days.  His  reception  in  America 
was  one  continuous  series  of  festivities,  in  all  of 
which  he  was,  of  course,  the  central  figure;  and  he 
was  met  everywhere  with  such  evidences  of  admira- 
tion and  affection  as  are  seldom  bestowed 
upon  those  who  have  long  retired  from  the 
field  of  their  activities.  He  remained  in  the 
United  States  for  fourteen  months,  traveling 
over  a  large  part  of  the  country,  and  visit- 
ing each  of  the  twenty-four  States  that  then  com- 
posed the  Union.  Congress  voted  him  a  money 
grant  of  $200,000  for  his  services  in  the  War  of  the 
Revolution,  and  a  land-grant  of  24,000  acres  out 
of  the  public  lands. 

Nowhere  was  his  reception  more  in  the  nature 
of  a  continuous  ovation  than  in  Virginia,  the  scene 
of  some  of  his  most  brilliant  military  triumphs  and 
the  home  of  his  devoted  personal  and  political  friend, 
Thomas  Jefferson.  In  November,  1824,  he  visited 
Jefferson  at  Monticello.  A  contemporary  record, 


141 

written  by  an  eye-witness  of  much  that  occurred  upon 
the  occasion  of  this  visit,  thus  describes  it: 

"General  Lafayette  reached  Albemarle  from 
Richmond  early  in  the  month  of  November,  1824. 
He  passed  through  Goochland  and  Fluvanna  on  his 
way,  and  was  received  in  each  county  with  the  live- 
liest demonstrations  of  respect  and  gratitude.  He 
was  escorted  to  the  Albemarle  line  by  the  Fluvanna 
troop.  At  Boyd's  Tavern,  on  the  line,  he  was  re- 
ceived by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  from  Al- 
bemarle, and  a  large  deputation  of  citizens  from  that 
county.  Mr.  William  C.  Rives,  acting  as  their 
spokesman,  addressed  General  Lafayette  in  a  felici- 
tous speech  of  some  length,  to  which  the  General 
replied  in  a  very  feeling  manner. 

"After  partaking  of  refreshments  at  Boyd's 
Tavern,  the  party  set  out  for  Monticello.  The 
landau  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  allotted  to  General  La- 
fayette by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  The 
General  ascended  the  landau,  attended  by  Mr.  Rives 
and  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  the  chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  Arrangements.  Then  followed 
'The  Guards,'  and  next  a  large  body  of  citizens 
marshalled  into  order  by  Major  Clark.  In  this  man- 
ner they  proceeded  to  Monticello.  At  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  the  approach  of  the  procession  upon 
the  mountain  was  announced  by  the  bugle,  and  when 
the  echo  of  its  note  was  heard,  those  persons  who 
had  assembled  at  an  early  hour  to  witness  the  Gen- 
eral's arrival,  formed  themselves  into  a  line  on  the 
northern  margin  of  the  circular  yard,  in  front  of 
the  house.  The  cavalry  by  a  sudden  and  almost  in- 
stantaneous movement  ranged  themselves  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  yard.  A  deep  silence  prevailed, 
while  every  eye  turned  with  eagerness  to  the  point 
where  the  General's  presence  was  expected.  The  next 
moment  the  carriage  drew  up  in  front  of  the  build- 
ing. 


i42     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"As  soon  as  the  General  drove  up,  Mr.  Jefferson 
advanced  to  meet  him  with  feeble  steps;  but  as  he 
approached  his  feelings  seemed  to  triumph  over  the 
infirmities  of  age,  and  as  the  General  descended,  they 
hastened  into  each  other's  arms.  They  embraced 
again  and  again;  tears  were  shed  by  both,  and  the 
broken  expressions  of  'God  bless  you,  General,'  and 
'Bless  you,  my  dear  Jefferson,'  was  all  that  inter- 
rupted the  silence  of  the  scene,  except  the  audible  sobs 
of  many  whose  emotions  could  not  be  suppressed. 

"On  the  next  day  the  Deputation  Committee  and 
the  Guards  proceeded  to  Monticello  to  escort  the 
General  to  Charlottesville.  General  Lafayette,  Mr. 
Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison  in  the  landau  proceeded 
to  Charlottesville,  where  hundreds  were  drawn  up 
in  order,  awaiting  their  arrival.  At  the  steps  of  the 
Central  Hotel  the  General  alighted,  and  was  re- 
ceived in  a  handsome  manner  by  the  chairman  of 
the  Committee,  Mr.  Randolph,  who  addressed  him 
as  follows: 

'  'General:  In  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  the 
citizens  of  Albemarle,  I  tender  to  you  our  most  af- 
fectionate greeting  and  cordial  welcome.  Our 
fathers,  whom  you  see  around  us,  have  taught  us, 
their  children,  from  our  earliest  youth  a  grateful 
respect  and  an  affectionate  veneration  for  you.  They 
have  often  told  us  how,  in  the  distressful  hour  of 
their  affliction  and  despair,  you  came  to  them  and 
cheered  them  by  your  presence  and  your  counsels. 
They  have  often  recounted  to  us  how  in  the  toilsome 
march,  in  the  inclement  night,  in  the  stubborn  action, 
you  were  at  their  sides,  sharing  their  fatigues  and 
sufferings  and  mingling  your  blood  with  theirs. 
These  things  have  sunk  deep  in  our  hearts.  We  look 
around  us,  and  see  that  we  are  free,  that  we  are 
happy.  We  recollect  that  it  is  partly  by  your  aid 
that  we  are  so. 

'We  have  hailed  you  in  your  native  land  as  the 
friend  to  the  Rights  of  Man;   we  have  seen  you  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     143 

victim  of  your  patriotism  and  of  your  disinterested 
principles;  we  have  seen  with  pleasure  your  tri- 
umphant march  through  our  country — a  triumph 
such  as  has  never  been  decreed  to  man — not  to  an 
imperial  Caesar,  or  to  an  Eastern  Tamerlane.  The 
homage  of  ten  millions  of  freemen  to  virtue  and  to 
merit,  the  unbought  applause  of  a  proud  and  free 
people,  who  have  scorned  alike  the  despotism  of  a 
mob  or  of  a  monarch — who  have  never  bent  the 
knee  in  abject  adulation  to  sceptered  power  or  here- 
ditary honors — who  have  never  bowed  but  in  adora- 
tion of  their  God — are  yours.  This,  General,  is  the 
people,  who  in  the  exalting  swell  of  their  hearts,  now 
greet  you  as  their  guest  and  benefactor.' 

"To  which  the  General  replied:  'Amidst  the 
patriotic  and  affectionate  enjoyments  of  this  visit  to 
my  beloved  and  venerated  friend,  I  find  a  high  ad- 
ditional gratification  in  the  welcome  I  receive  from 
the  citizens  of  Albemarle.  The  recollections  you  are 
pleased  to  allude  to  are  on  your  part  very  kind,  sir — 
I  may  add,  they  are  very  generous.  I  still  with  re- 
gret remember  that  owing  to  the  necessity  of  our 
operating  a  junction  which  an  active  enemy  en- 
deavored to  prevent,  the  town  of  Charlottesville 
was  exposed  to  momentary  invasion.  Yet  that  very 
circumstance  has  given  fresh  proof  of  the  patriotism 
of  the  citizens  of  this  and  the  neighboring  counties, 
as  to  their  spirited  assistance  we  were  in  a  great  part 
indebted  for  the  happy  return  of  our  military  opera- 
tions. Now,  sir,  I  rejoice  to  see  you  in  the  full  en- 
joyment of  peace  and  happiness,  and  of  the  rising 
prospects  which  are  before  you.  Receive,  gentle- 
men, with  my  congratulations,  my  respectful  and 
affectionate  acknowledgments.' 

"The  General  was  then  introduced  to  a  large 
crowd  in  the  reception-room.  He  was  evidently 
grateful  at  the  glow  of  feeling.  It  was  not  con- 
strained respect  to  renown  or  power;  it  was  love. 
It  was  deep  and  grateful  affection.  It  was  the  mem- 


i44     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

ory  of  his  services  and  sacrifices  for  us  that  swelled 
the  hearts  and  glistened  in  the  eyes  of  the  people. 

''The  procession -was  formed  at  twelve  o'clock, 
and  marched  to  the  University,  the  chief  marshal 
with  two  aids  and  the  President  of  the  day  preced- 
ing the  General,  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison  in 
a  landau  drawn  by  four  grays.  After  the  landau 
followed  the  General's  son  and  suite  in  a  carriage 
drawn  by  two  horses;  then  the  Visitors  of  the  Uni- 
versity, standing  committees,  magistrates,  cavalry, 
junior  officers,  and  citizens  on  horseback  and  on  foot. 
The  procession  moved  slowly  to  the  University. 
Each  man  from  the  accuracy  of  his  movements 
seemed  to  have  been  drilled  for  his  duty.  As  the 
University  came  suddenly  into  view,  a  thousand  of 
the  daughters  of  the  mountains,  ranged  aloft  on  the 
terraces,  waved  their  white  kerchiefs  in  the  air.  It 
was  beautiful;  his  escort,  the  country's  chivalry; 
his  reception,  its  loveliness.  They  crowded  around 
the  eastern  stretch  of  the  University,  and  came  to 
the  bottom  of  the  lawn.  The  procession  dismounted, 
and  was  formed  on  foot.  The  first  objects  that 
struck  the  view  were  three  flags  floating  on  the  Ro- 
tunda. On  the  largest  in  broad  letters  were  the  words  : 
'Welcome,  our  country's  Guest.'  There  was  a  moral 
sublimity  in  the  scene.  On  the  very  spot  where  now 
walked,  arm  in  arm,  a  hero  of  the  Revolution  with 
two  of  its  sages — a  spot  where  the  youngest  scion 
of  science  had  been  planted  by  the  patriarchal  hand 
of  Jefferson,  his  last  public  care — were  now  assem- 
bled all  the  beauty  and  chivalry  of  the  country  to 
bid  the  fathers  of  their  country  hail. 

"The  procession  moved  slowly  up  the  Lawn  to 
the  steps  of  the  Rotunda,  the  General  gracefully 
bowing  to  the  ladies  as  he  passed,  where  Mr.  Wil- 
liam F.  Gordon  stood  ready  to  receive  him.  As  the 
General  advanced  Mr.  Gordon  descended  the  steps 
of  the  portico,  and  thus  addressed  him : 

"  'General    Lafayette :      The    citizens     of     Albe- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     145 

marie  County  again  greet  you  as  their  friend  and 
benefactor.  They  tender  you  assurances  of  their 
gratitude  and  veneration.  They  contemplate  with 
affection  the  moral  sublimity  of  the  scene  of  your 
return  to  our  country.  Throughout  our  associated 
republics  to  you  there  is  no  enemy.  We  refute  the 
calumny  that  men  have  more  respect  for  their  de- 
stroyers than  for  their  benefactors,  while  with  spon- 
taneous gratitude  millions  of  freemen  resound  to 
heaven  the  praises  of  liberty  and  Lafayette. 

"  'The  citizens  of  Virginia  hail  with  a  peculiar 
enthusiasm  your  arrival  at  this  spot.  It  is  their  uni- 
versity, their  future  temple  of  literature  and  science, 
erected  beyond  the  point  where  the  flag  of  the  in- 
vader has  ever  floated,  a  fruit  of  our  glorious  Revo- 
lution, an  emanation  from  that  mind  which  first  de- 
clared that  we  were  free,  sovereign  and  independent. 

'  'We  associate  with  your  being  here,  General,  the 
augury  of  its  success.  We  look  back  on  the  troubled 
night  of  our  Revolutionary  War,  and  thence  to  this 
institution  of  liberty  with  grateful  recollections  of 
your  gallant  toils  in  that,  and  with  bright  anticipa- 
tions of  your  benedictions  on  this. 

"  'Here  the  sons  of  Virginia,  whilst  drinking  from 
the  untroubled  fountain  of  science,  will  contemplate 
with  indescribable  emotion  the  beauty  and  stability 
of  that  Corinthian  pillar  of  reputation  which  you 
have  erected.  It  charms  the  more  from  the  solitary 
grandeur  which  it  exhibits,  and  the  waste  and  de- 
struction of  the  social  and  political  elements  with 
which  it  has  elsewhere  been  surrounded.  For  the 
future  generations  of  our  country  we  know,  General, 
that  you  will  unite  with  us  in  the  fervent  invocation 
that  this  University,  erected  on  the  hills  of  liberty 
which  you  have  defended  from  the  tread  of  the  in- 
vader, may  be  an  everlasting  fire  to  which  her  vo- 
taries may  look;  that  here  may  continue  to  blaze  that 
bright  constellation  of  principles  which  guided  our 
10 


146    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

steps  through  an  age  of  revolution  and  reformation, 
to  which  the  wisdom  of  our  sages  and  the  blood  of 
our  heroes,  mingled  with  that  of  our  illustrious 
guest,  have  been  devoted. 

"  'For  yourself,  General,  we  sincerely  pray  that  a 
life  which  has  been  so  gloriously  directed  to  the  ser- 
vice and  happiness  of  mankind,  whose  morning  beam 
lighted  the  darkness  of  our  fortunes,  may  be  long 
protracted;  that  its  evening  ray  may  shine  across 
the  gloom  and  oppression  of  other  nations,  and  illu- 
mine their  way  to  liberty  and  safety.' 

"To  which  the  General  replied: 

'  'I  am  happy,  sir,  once  more  to  receive  the  kind 
welcome  of  the  citizens  of  Albemarle,  and  this  day 
to  receive  it  under  the  beautiful  pantheon  of  this  ris- 
ing University,  the  advantage  of  which  not  only  to 
this  part  of  the  United  States  but  to  the  cause  of 
mankind,  so  eloquently  expressed  by  you,  I  rejoice 
to  acknowledge.  Nor  do  I  in  anything  more  cor- 
dially sympathize  than  in  the  mention  you  have  made 
of  the  venerable  friend,  whom,  if  there  were  but  one 
University  in  the  world,  the  enlightened  men  of  both 
hemispheres  would  in  common  elect  to  preside  over 
universal  information. 

'  'Be  pleased,  sir,  to  accept  the  tribute  of  my 
respectful  gratitude  to  you;  and  to  you,  fellow- 
citizens  of  Albemarle.' 

"The  dinner  that  took  place  in  the  upper  room  of 
the  Rotunda  was  attended  by  many  hundreds  of 
persons,  including  several  of  the  most  illustrious 
citizens  of  the  Republic.  Mr.  Valentine  W.  Southall 
presided,  with  the  General  first  on  his  right,  the  Mr. 
Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison;  and  on  his  left  G.  W. 
Lafayette  and  suite." 

Toasts  were  given,  and  responded  to  by  Lafayette, 
Madison  and  Jefferson,  the  last  named  of  whom, 
too  weak  to  reply  in  person,  handed  to  the  presiding 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     147 

officer,  Mr.  Southall,  some  written  remarks  which 
he  read  to  the  company. 

In  the  following  January  General  Lafayette  re- 
turned to  Richmond,  where  it  was  designed  to  ex- 
tend him  a  reception  commensurate  with  the  dignity 
of  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  capital  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. The  plans  were  carried  out  in  all  their 
detail,  and  were  characterized  by  a  lavishness  of 
municipal  display  and  a  sincerity  of  affection  that 
were  unexcelled,  and  perhaps  seldom  equalled,  by 
any  welcome  extended  him  elsewhere.  The  streets 
and  the  public  and  private  buildings  were  decorated 
in  his  honor;  and  his  way  was  adorned  with  tri- 
umphal arches,  as  to  a  Roman  conqueror. 

On  the  23d  of  January,  1825,  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates, then  in  annual  session  appointed  a  committee 
to  act  jointly  with  one  of  a  like  character  from  the 
Senate,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  appropriate  legis- 
lative action  in  connection  with  Lafayette's  visit; 
and  Gordon  was  made  a  member  of  this  joint  com- 
mittee. On  the  24th  of  January  the  committee,  hav- 
ing waited  on  General  Lafayette  at  his  tavern,  at  ele- 
ven o'clock,  and  delivered  to  him  a  formal  address  of 
welcome  on  behalf  of  the  legislature,  to  which  he 
appropriately  replied,  returned  and  reported  to  the 
the  General  Assembly  that  it  would  be  agreeable 
to  their  distinguished  visitor  to  be  introduced  to  the 
two  Houses  at  any  hour  that  might  be  convenient 
to  them  to  receive  him.  There  can  be  no  more 
graphic  narrative  of  the  deep  feeling  of  gratitude 
and  reverence,  and  of  the  unfeigned  desire  to  mani- 
fest these  emotions,  than  is  illustrated  in  the  simple 
and  poignant  record  of  the  proceedings  of  this  com- 
mittee, as  detailed  on  the  pages  of  the  House  Jour- 
nal. The  committee  after  reciting  a  preamble,  say : 

"The  Committee  recommend  therefore  the  fol- 
lowing resolution: 

"Resolved,  That  General  Lafayette  will    be    re- 


1 48     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

ceived  by  the  House  of  Delegates  on  this  day  at  two 
o'clock." 

The  Journal  thereupon  continues :  "The  said  reso- 
lution being  twice  read  was,  on  the  question  put 
thereon,  agreed  to  by  the  House. 

"On  the  motion  of  Mr.  Gordon,  the  following 
preamble  and  resolution  being  twice  read,  were 
agreed  to  unanimously. 

"  'The  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  entertaining 
an  exalted  sense  of  the  generous  devotion  of  General 
Lafayette  to  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  mankind, 
and  conscious  that  their  love  of  liberty  must  ever 
be  identified  with  their  affection  towards  so  distin- 
guished a  benefactor,  as  a  testimonial  of  their  grati- 
tude for  his  gallant  services  and  ennobling  sacrifices 
in  the  cause  of  American  liberty,  Have,  therefore, 
Resolved:  That  the  Executive  of  this  State  cause 
to  be  prepared  and  presented  to  General  Lafayette, 
in  the  name  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  and 
in  the  manner  which  they  may  deem  most  appro- 
priate, copies  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  of 
the  Declaration  or  Bill  of  Rights,  and  the  Act  for 
establishing  Religious  Freedom,  together  with  the 
Farewell  Address  of  General  Washington  to  the 
People  of  the  United  States.'  ' 

In  the  presence  of  the  two  Houses  Lafayette  was 
addressed  by  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Delegates 
in  words  of  welcome;  and  it  is  recorded  that  the 
distinguished  visitor  "made  an  eloquent  reply."  The 
House  Journal  concludes  with  the  recitation:  "The 
General  took  the  seat  prepared  for  him  in  the 
House." 

Other  tokens  of  welcome  and  affection  followed, 
amid  scenes  of  festivity  and  rejoicing  in  Richmond; 
and  when  the  venerable  Frenchman  returned  to  his 
native  land  it  was  with  a  vivid  and  grateful  sense 
of  the  generosity  and  hospitality  with  which  he  had 


149 

been  everywhere  received  in  the  new  Republic  which 
a  half  century  before  he  had  helped  to  create. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  Lottery  Bill  was  an  interesting 
feature  of  the  legislative  session  following  General 
Lafayette's  visit.  The  often  shifting  and  conven- 
tional significance  of  the  moral  code  in  the  view  of 
civilized  mankind  is  illustrated  in  the  different  regard 
with  which  the  best  and  wisest  men  then  viewed 
many  things  now  tabooed  and  prohibited.  Jefferson 
in  his  old  age  had  become  impoverished,  and  sought 
the  relief  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  in 
disposing  of  what  remained  of  a  considerable  for- 
tune to  the  best  advantage.  He  had  been  the  pos- 
sessor of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
property  when  he  left  the  Presidency,  but  the  cease- 
less hospitality  which  characterized  his  home-keeping 
at  Monticello,  the  payment  of  an  ante-bellum  British 
debt,  and  the  loss  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  by  en- 
dorsement for  one  of  his  friends,  ruined  him  finan- 
cially. He  sold  his  library  to  Congress  for  $23,950, 
but  this  only  served  to  defer  for  a  while  the  final 
reckoning.  The  time  was  unfavorable  for  convert- 
ing his  large  landed  estates  into  money  by  sale;  and 
even  if  this  were  done,  an  ordinary  sale  would  have 
left  him  without  property  and  a  debtor. 

He  petitioned  the  legislature  for  leave  to  dispose 
of  his  property  by  lottery.  By  this  means,  he  said, 
"I  can  save  the  house  of  Monticello,  and  a  farm 
adjoining,  to  end  my  days  in,  and  bury  my  bones. 
If  not,  I  must  sell  house  and  all  here,  and  carry  my 
family  to  Bedford,  where  I  have  not  even  a  log 
hut  to  put  my  head  into." 

The  author  of  the  "Life  of  Jefferson"  in  the 
"American  Statesmen"  series,  says: 

"When  the  proposition  was^  broached,  some  oppo- 
sition was  threatened,  and  its  success  was  not  cer- 
tain. Jefferson  wrote,  with  evident  humiliation:  'I 
perceive  there  are  greater  doubts  than  I  appre- 


150    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

hended,  whether  the  legislature  will  indulge  my  re- 
quest to  them.  It  is  a  part  of  my  mortification  to 
perceive  that  I  had  so  far  over-valued  myself  as  to 
have  counted  on  it  with  too  much  confidence.  'I  see,' 
he  sadly  adds,  '  in  the  failure  of  this  hope  a  deadly 
blast  of  all  my  peace  of  mind  during  my  remaining 
days.'  "But,"  continues  Mr.  Morse,  his  biographer, 
"he  was  spared  a  disappointment  so  severe.  The 
opposition  was  feeble,  and  the  authorizing  bill  passed 
both  houses  by  very  gratifying  majorities." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  opposition  was  aggressive, 
strong  and  relentless,  and  was  based  solely  upon  polit- 
ical considerations.  The  Federalists  fought  the 
measure  with  the  same  vindictive  spirit  that  they 
manifested  towards  everything  Jeffersonian,  and  as 
though  it  involved  some  great  principle  of  govern- 
ment. Gordon,  who  was  actively  interested  in  its 
success,  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson  on  the  iyth  of 
February,  1826,  from  Richmond,  as  follows: 

"Friday,  17  February,  1826. 
"Dear  Sir: 

"I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  the  Bill 
in  your  behalf  was  today  ordered  to  be  engrossed 
by  a  large  majority. 

"It  is  calculated  by  your  friends  that  it  will  pass 
to-morrow  by  a  decided  majority. 

"The  objects  of  the  application  were  not  at  first 
understood  by  many  members  voting  against  leave 
to  bring  in  the  bill;  and  I  fear  the  Federalists  were 
active  in  preventing  them. 

"I  believe  that  few  will  now  vote  against  the  bill 
except  the  Federal  delegates,  of  whom  there  are  too 
many.  Their  opposition  is  more  than  compensated 
by  the  zeal  and  devotion  of  your  friends,  among 
whom  I  am  proud  to  subscribe  myself  as  your  affec- 
tionate and  devoted  servant, 

WILLIAM  F.  GORDON." 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     151 

On  the  following  day  the  bill  passed  the  House  of 
Delegates  under  the  title  of  "An  Act  authorizing 
Thomas  Jefferson  to  dispose  of  his  property  by  lot- 
tery," by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to 
sixty-two.  Immediately  after  its  passage,  proffers 
of  assistance  came  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States;  and  a  little  more  than  four  months  later  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  dead,  departing  under  the  illusion  that 
his  home  and  hearthstone  would  be  saved  to  his 
children  by  the  citizens  of  a  grateful  country. 

In  the  next  December  Gordon  presented  in  the 
House  of  Delegates  the  petition  of  Colonel  Thomas 
Jefferson  Randolph,  Jefferson's  grandson  and  exe- 
cutor, on  behalf  of  several  slaves  who  had  been 
liberated  by  the  latter's  will,  that  they  might  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  the  law  of 
the  Commonwealth  at  that  time  providing  that 
manumitted  slaves  should  be  removed  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  State;  and  in  January  thereafter  the 
House  Journal  recites  that  "on  motion  of  Mr.  Gor- 
don, the  committee  of  Schools  and  Colleges  were 
discharged  from  consideration  of  the  petition  of 
sundry  citizens  of  Albemarle  relative  to  the  Bust 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  the  said  petition  was  or- 
dered to  be  referred  to  the  select  committee  ap- 
pointed to  enquire  into  the  propriety  of  erecting  a 
monument  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  that  they  examine 
the  matter  thereof,  and  report  their  opinion  there- 
upon to  the  House.  Ordered  that  Mr.  Gordon  be 
added  to  the  said  committee." 

These  were  his  last  tributes  in  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates to  the  memory  of  the  greatest  of  all  Virginia 
statesmen,  whose  principles  of  government  he 
cherished,  with  whose  personal  friendship  and  esteem 
he  was  honored,  and  with  whom  he  co-operated 
modestly  and  unobtrusively,  but  none  the  less  really 
and  effectively,  in  establishing  a  great  educational  in- 
stitution, the  name  of  which,  as  the  offspring  of  his 
genius,  Jefferson  provided  should  be  inscribed  upon 
his  tombstone. 


CHAPTER  X 

IN  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION  OF  TWENTY- 
NINE-THIRTY THE  DISTINCTION  OF 

ITS   MEMBERSHIP 

In  December,  1828,  the  movement  in  behalf  of  a 
Constitutional  Convention  in  Virginia  for  the  pur- 
pose of  changing  the  basis  of  representation  began 
to  assume  definite  shape.  Gordon  was  the  chairman 
of  the  House  Committee  on  Courts  of  Justice,  and 
took  a  leading  part  in  the  discussions  in  the  House  of 
Delegates  over  the  various  amendments  to  the  Con- 
stitution that  were  proposed  for  a  partition  of  the 
State  in  order  to  assure  a  proper  distribution  of  the 
delegates  and  senators  upon  a  fair  representative 
basis.  But  early  in  the  session  it  was  developed  that 
the  question  had  become  so  exciting  a  one  as  to  be 
insusceptible  of  settlement  by  amendment;  and  in 
the  latter  part  of  January,  1829,  we  find  him  sup- 
porting and  voting  for  a  bill  "to  organize  a  conven- 
tion." The  proposition  was  submitted  to  the  free- 
hold electorate  of  the  State;  and  the  convention  was 
called  by  a  vote  of  21,896  in  its  favor  to  16,637 
against  it  in  the  whole  Commonwealth.  In  Albe- 
marle  the  measure  was  hardly  popular;  and  in  a 
poll  of  329  votes  the  convention  was  defeated  by 
three  majority. 

"Andrew  Jackson  was  inaugurated  in  the  month 
of  March,"  says  Tyler,  in  his  "Letters  and  Times 
of  the  Tylers,"  "and  the  next  month  elections  oc- 
curred in  Virginia  for  a  State  Convention  to  amend 
the  constitution  of  1776.  This  was,  therefore,  a 
most  momentous  year  in  the  annals  of  Virginia.  The 
subject  of  a  constitution  had  been  mooted  in  Vir- 
ginia ever  since  the  Revolution,  but  the  conservatism 
of  the  State  had  steadily  defeated  the  project  for  a 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     153 

continuous  period  of  forty-six  years.  The  jealousies 
of  the  west,  and  the  discontent  expressed  by  the  dis- 
franchised non-freeholders,  forced  the  Legislature 
in  1828  at  length  to  submit  the  call  of  a  convention  to 
the  people.  The  fact  was  that  the  changed  state  of 
society  required  a  change  in  the  fundamental  laws. 
The  eastern  counties,  whose  white  population  con- 
sisted principally  of  freeholders,  voted  heavily 
against  the  proposition,  pregnant  as  it  was  with  in- 
jury to  their  present  political  influence,  by  threaten- 
ing to  increase  the  voting  power  of  the  West,  and 
to  abrogate  the  equality  of  the  counties — each  county 
under  the  old  constitution,  being  entitled  to  two  rep- 
resentatives irrespective  of  population." 

It  was  a  situation  not  unlike  that  which  arose  in 
England  over  the  Reform  Bill;  and  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  in  the  attitude  of  the  western  and  moun- 
tainous part  of  the  State,  where  there  were  few 
slaves,  and  whose  inhabitants  were  generally  men 
who  toiled  with  their  own  hands,  was  visible  for  the 
first  time  the  line  of  political  and  social  demarca- 
tion, which  resulted  three  decades  later,  amid  the 
throes  of  war,  in  the  dismemberment  from  the 
mother  State  of  the  present  State  of  West  Virginia. 
To  the  thoughtful  observer  of  the  period  was  visi- 
ble in  the  smouldering  fire  of  the  approaching  con- 
flict a  spark  of  local  peril;  for  the  lurid  light  of  the 
slavery  agitation  was  kindling  the  horizon,  and  the 
vision  at  home,  though  of  a  different  character,  was 
none  the  less  ominous  than  that  abroad.  The  wrong 
of  slavery  to  the  non-slave  owning  white  man  of  the 
South,  so  powerfully  appealed  to  in  the  dramatic 
presentation  of  Hinton  R.  Helper's  "Impending 
Crisis"  in  the  fifties,  first  showed  itself  in  the  consti- 
tutional convention  movement  in  Virginia  in  1828. 

The  convention  contained  ninety-six  delegates, 
distributed  among  twenty-four  districts,  as  indicated 
in  the  legislative  act  of  its  establishment.  Each  con- 
vention district  chose  four  delegates.  When  the 


154    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

elections  were  had,  and  the  convention  assembled, 
it  appeared  that  the  people  had  chosen  as  their  rep- 
resentatives for  the  reconstruction  of  the  basic  law 
a  body  of  men  who  were  the  peers  of  those  who 
more  than  fifty  years  before  had  made  the  first  con- 
stitution ever  written  on  American  soil,  or  of  that 
later  gathering  of  Virginians  who  had  ratified  the 
Federal  Constitution. 

"Some  have  held  it  equal  to  the  celebrated  con- 
vention which  met  in  Virginia  in  the  year  1788  to 
pass  upon  the  Federal  Constitution,"  wrote  Mr. 
Ritchie  in  his  preface  to  the  Debates.  "Much  of 
what  was  venerable  for  years  and  long  service ;  many 
of  those  who  were  most  respected  for  their  wisdom 
and  their  eloquence;  two  of  the  ex-Presidents  of  the 
United  States;  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States; 
several  of  those  who  had  been  most  distinguished  in 
Congress  or  the  State  legislature,  on  the  bench  or  at 
the  bar,  were  brought  together  for  the  momentous 
purpose  of  laying  anew  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
land." 

Ritchie's  eulogium,  pronounced  in  the  summer 
following  the  convention's  adjournment,  has  been 
more  than  justified  by  the  judgment  of  posterity; 
and  the  veracious  historian  must  hesitate  to  prefer 
to  this  organization  of  illustrious  men  even  that  first 
Continental  Congress,  of  whose  personnel  Lord 
Chatham  said  "that  for  solidarity  of  reasoning,  force 
of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion  under  such  a 
complication  of  difficult  circumstances,  no  nation  or 
body  of  men  can  stand  in  preference  to  the  general 
Congress  at  Philadelphia." 

The  age  was  peculiarly  one  of  oratory,  in  which 
the  Virginians  excelled;  and  in  this  amazing  body 
were  very  many  who  in  the  exercise  of  this  particular 
gift  might  rank  with  that  galaxy  of  the  House  of 
Commons  which,  beyond  the  water,  gathered  in  1788 
in  the  great  hall  of  William  Rufus,  at  Westminster, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     155 

to  impeach  the  Governor  of  India  at  the  bar  of  the 
British  Peers. 

The  very  opening  scene  of  the  convention  was  in 
the  highest  degree  impressive.  James  Madison,  the 
only  survivor  of  that  earlier  convention  which  had 
formed  the  first  constitution  of  the  State,  and  one  of 
the  two  living  members  of  the  convention  which  had 
formed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  now 
an  ex-President  of  the  Union,  arose  and  addressed 
the  Convention.  He  stated  the  propriety  of  organ- 
izing the  body  by  the  appointment  of  a  President, 
and  nominated  his  old  antagonist,  James  Monroe,  as 
qualified  to  fill  the  chair.  Mr.  Monroe,  another 
ex-President  of  the  United  States,  was  unanimously 
elected;  and  was  escorted  to  the  chair  by  Mr.  Madi- 
son and  Chief  Justice  Marshall. 

About  them  were  gathered  John  Tyler,  Governor, 
Senator  and  President;  Littleton  Waller  Tazewell, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Virginians  of  his  genera- 
tion, who  was  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  and 
United  States  Senator;  Abel  P.  Upshur,  jurist  and 
powerful  debater,  and  the  successor  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster as  Secretary  of  State;  John  Randolph,  of  Roa- 
noke,  illustrating  in  his  extraordinary  appearance 
and  marvellous  oratory  the  gall  of  genius,  United 
States  Congressman,  Senator  and  Minister  to  Russia; 
William  Branch  Giles,  whom  Randolph  likened  to 
Charles  James  Fox,  in  the  British  Commons,  "the 
most  accomplished  debater  his  country  had  ever 
seen,"  leader  of  the  Republican  party  on  the  floor  of 
the  United  States  Senate,  bitterly  hated  of  the  Feder- 
alists, and  now  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth; 
Philip  Pendleton  Barbour,  Speaker  of  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives,  later  president  of 
the  convention,  statesman  and  jurist,  and  Associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States; 
Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  orator  of  the  highest  rank, 
whose  English  diction  was  said  to  be  "so  clear,  cor- 
rect and  elegant,  that  it  might  be  safely  committed 


156    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

to  print  just  as  spoken,"  Doctor  of  Laws  of  William 
and  Mary  College,  Reporter  of  the  State  Court  of 
Appeals,  and  United  States  Senator;  James  Pleas- 
ants,  Congressman,  United  States  Senator,  and  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Commonwealth;  Chapman  Johnson, 
eminent  lawyer  and  leader  of  the  bar,  the  successor 
of  Jefferson  and  Madison  as  Rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia;  John  W.  Green,  distinguished 
jurist  and  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals 
of  Virginia;  John  Y.  Mason,  chairman  of  th,e 
Foreign  Affairs  Committee  in  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives,  United  States  District 
and  Circuit  Judge,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under 
Tyler,  and  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States 
under  Polk,  President  of  the  Virginia  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1850,  and  United  States  Minister  to 
France;  Mark  Alexander,  for  many  years  a  notable 
party  leader  in  Southside  Virginia,  and  a  representa- 
tive in  Congress  from  John  Randolph's  old  district; 
William  Leigh,  Randolph's  friend  and  executor, 
whom  he  esteemed  in  the  category  of  those  that  he 
trusted  along  with  Nathaniel  Macon  and  John  Wick- 
ham;  William  O.  Goode,  legislator  and  statesman, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Delegates,  Congressman, 
member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1850, 
democratic  exponent  of  the  doctrine  of  gradual 
emancipation;  Charles  Fenton  Mercer,  soldier  and 
statesman,  president  of  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio 
Canal,  Federalist  Congressman  during  an  unex- 
ampled period  of  service  among  his  contemporaries, 
the  earnest  advocative  of  a  protective  tariff,  and  an 
opponent  of  slavery;  John  S.  Barbour,  able  debater, 
eloquent  defender  of  freehold  suffrage  in  the  conven- 
tion, four  times  elected  Congressman,  and  a  distin- 
guished member  of  the  family  of  which  James  Bar- 
bour and  Philip  Pendleton  Barbour  were  then  the 
most  illustrious  representatives;  Alexander  Camp- 
bell, scholar  and  theologian,  and  one  of  the  most  in- 
tellectual and  forceful  leaders  of  men  in  his  day; 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     157 

George  Loyall,  zealous  anti-tariff  man  and  party 
leader,  and  prominent  in  Congress  during  Jackson's 
administration;  and  others,  who  if  less  widely 
known  then  or  subsequently  in  the  field  of  national 
politics  and  statesmanship,  stood  for  all  that  was 
loftiest  and  best  in  the  contemporary  life  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  included  on  their  bede-roll  such  well- 
remembered  names  as  those  of  Briscoe  G.  Baldwin, 
Richard  N.  Venable,  David  Watson,  Robert  Stanard, 
William  Henry  Fitzhugh,  John  Roane,  Richard 
Morris,  Lewis  Summers,  John  Scott,  George  C. 
Dromgoole,  Joseph  Prentis,  Archibald  Stuart, 
Thomas  R.  Joynes  and  Thomas  M.  Bayley.  With 
scarcely  an  exception  those  of  this  remarkable  aggre- 
gation of  ninety-six  Virginians  who  had  not 
already,  or  did  not  later  achieve  a  civic  reputation, 
were  distinguished  and  highly  esteemed  both  in  their 
own  communities,  and  in  the  State  at  large  for  their 
virtue  and  wisdom  as  citizens  and  forceful  men  of 
affairs. 

The  convention  constituted  a  galaxy  of  statesman- 
ship, of  oratorical  and  forensic  ability  and  display, 
of  judicial  learning  and  of  experienced  political  train- 
ing, that  is  worthy  of  the  pen  of  the  most  gifted  his- 
torian;— the  detailed  circumstance  of  which  in  this 
narrative  would  be,  even  otherwise,  rendered  super- 
fluous by  the  noble  story  of  the  convention  by  one  of 
its  youngest,  though  not  least  talented  members,  the 
scholarly  and  accomplished  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby,  his- 
torian of  the  two  earlier  conventions  of  Virginia,  and 
Chancellor  of  the  ancient  and  venerable  college  of 
William  and  Mary. 

The  delegates  from  the  district  composed  of  the 
counties  of  Albemarle,  Amherst,  Nelson,  Fluvanna 
and  Goochland  were  William  Fitzhugh  Gordon  of 
Albemarle,  James  Pleasants  of  Goochland,  Lucas  P. 
Thompson  of  Amherst,  and  Thomas  Massie,  Jr.,  of 
Nelson. 

Governor  Pleasants  was  a  man  of  eminent  ability 


158     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

and  of  large  political  experience  and  distinction. 
His  career  has  been  sketched  in  a  former  chapter. 

Lucas  P.  Thompson,  one  of  the  younger  men  of 
the  convention,  achieved  later  a  position  second  to 
that  of  none  of  the  many  great  nisi-prius  judges  of 
his  generation  in  the  State,  by  his  administration 
through  a  long  series  of  years  of  the  duties  of  a  judge 
of  the  Circuit  Court;  and  though  the  fame  of  even 
the  most  prominent  and  the  ablest  judges  of  the 
lower  courts  is  apt  to  fade  from  the  memories  of  the 
succeeding  generations,  Judge  Thompson's  person- 
ality was  so  distinctively  marked  that  the  story  of 
his  wisdom  and  justice  still  lingers  even  among  the 
laymen  of  the  circuit  over  which  he  so  long  and  ably 
presided. 

Thomas  Massie,  Jr.,  the  fourth  member  from  the 
Albemarle  district,  had  the  local  reputation  for 
ability  and  high  character  which  adorned  all  the 
members  of  the  convention  whose  civic  achievements 
were  less  conspicuous  than  those  of  its  leaders ;  and 
was  a  member  of  a  family  that  has  long  been  influ- 
ential and  prominent  in  the  Piedmont  section  of  the 
State. 

The  convention  met  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of 
Delegates  in  Richmond,  in  the  northern  end  of  the 
beautiful  and  symmetrical  State  Capitol,  which,  like 
so  much  else  of  value  and  charm  in  Virginia,  was  the 
product  of  Jefferson's  genius.  The  building  was  the 
reproduction  of  the  classic  Cathedral  at  Nismes  in 
France,  which  had  caught  his  eye  and  delighted  his 
cultivated  taste  during  his  residence  abroad;  and  of 
which,  with  a  persistent  view  to  the  application  of 
Old  World  ideals  to  the  conditions  of  his  developing 
young  republic,  he  had  brought  home  with  him  the 
architectural  scheme  and  plan. 

The  first  session  of  the  Convention  of  1829-30 
occurred  on  the  5th  day  of  October,  1829.  Its 
meeting-place  had  been  the  scene  of  the  most  of 
Gordon's  public  labors,  and  of  no  few  of  his  forensic 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     159 

triumphs;  and  with  that  sense  of  accustomedness 
which  makes  men  put  forth  their  best  efforts  amid 
familiar  scenes,  he  felt  himself  ready,  upon  occasion, 
to  do  battle,  even  with  the  intellectual  giants  about 
him,  upon  the  great  question  which  the  body  had 
been  convened  to  determine.  But  nearly  a  month  of 
its  session  elapsed  before  he  entered  the  debate,  in 
an  impressive  argument  in  behalf  of  the  white  basis. 
The  representatives  from  the  western  part  of  the 
State,  where,  as  has  been  related,  the  slave  population 
was  sparse,  and  the  aristocratic  influence  descending 
from  a  colonial  line  of  river-barons  did  not  prevail, 
maintained  the  proposition  that  all  representation 
should  be  based  on  the  white  population.  The  con- 
tention of  the  members  from  the  eastern  and  older 
section  of  the  State  was  that  representation  m  the  two 
houses  of  the  General  Assembly  should  be  fixed  with 
reference  to  the  property  of  the  people  of  Virginia  in 
slaves.  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  who  had  bitterly 
opposed  the  calling  of  the  convention,  saw  in  its 
assembling  and  in  the  proposition  of  the  white  basis 
an  approaching  evolution  of  social  chaos.  There 
was  no  man  of  the  earlier  generation,  save  Mr. 
Jefferson,  for  whose  patriotic  and  intelligent  con- 
ception of  the  organization,  under  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, of  our  dual  form  of  government,  Gordon 
had  a  higher  admiration  than  for  Randolph's;  and 
when  he  entered  the  convention  as  an  advocate  of  the 
white  basis,  it  was  not  without  grave  apprehension 
that  he  might,  sooner  or  later,  become  the  target  of 
Randolph's  attack.  He  was  accustomed,  however, 
to  say  in  later  life,  with  much  pleasure,  that  Ran- 
dolph's attitude  toward  him  was  one,  not  only  of 
unvarying  courtesy  and  kindness,  but  even  of  prof- 
fered friendship ;  and  that  the  poisoned  tongue  which 
lashed  Alexander  Campbell  and  Chapman  Johnson, 
and  others  in  the  excited  sessions,  had  always  gener- 
ously spared  him. 


160    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Niles,  in  his  Register,  under  date  of  October  24, 
1829,  said: 

"There  are  95,593  persons  charged  with  State  tax 
on  movable  property  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  all  of 
whojn  have  been  taxed,  without  being  represented 
because  of  such  taxation.  The  inequality  of  the 
present  mode  of  electing  delegates  to  the  General 
Assembly  may  be  well  esteemed  from  the  table 
showing  the  taxables  in  each  county.  Many  of  the 
counties,  and  especially  those  in  the  Valley,  or  west- 
ward, contain  500  to  2,000  taxables  while  many  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  having  the  same  power 
of  representation,  have  less  than  400  taxables; — one, 
Warwick,  only  126.  We  have  mentioned  that  the 
business  of  the  convention  was  parcelled  out  to  dif- 
ferent committees.  That  on  the  legislative  department 
decided  on  the  i6th  inst.  that  white  population  was 
the  proper  basis  for  representation  in  the  House  of 
Delegates.  The  vote  in  the  committee  stood  thus: 
For  the  resolution,  Wm.  Anderson,  Chapman  John- 
son, Andrew  Bierne,  James  Madison,  Charles  Fenton 
Mercer,  John  R.  Cooke,  Philip  C.  Pendleton,  John 
B.  George,  Henley  Chapman,  Lewis  Summers, 
Philip  Doddridge,  Wm.  Campbell  of  Bedford,  and 
James  Pleasants,  13.  "Against  it,  Benjamin  Wat- 
kins  Leigh,  Wm.  H.  Broadnax,  John  Tyler,  John 
Y.  Mason,  John  Randolph,  John  Roane,  John  W. 
Green,  Littleton  Waller  Tazewell,  George  Townes, 
John  Taliaferro,  Thos.  R.  Joynes,  n. 

"The  vote  in  committee,  however,  was  12  against 
12,  on  the  proposition  to  make  the  white  population 
the  basis  also  of  representation  in  the  Senate,  Mr. 
Madison  voting  with  the  minority  on  the  other 
question.  It  is  intimated  that  the  proposition  to 
elect  the  Senate  according  to  federal  numbers  (by 
which  5  slaves  are  counted  as  3  white  persons)  will 
be  offered  by  way  of  compromise  between  the  parties 
in  the  convention,  which  already  begin  to  show  a 
great  deal  of  feeling, — the  west  not  yet  disposed  to 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     161 

concede  as  to  the  Senate,  and  the  east  resisting  the 
proposition  even  as  to  the  House  of  Delegates. 

"It  is  stated  that  48  of  the  members  may  be 
counted  as  firm  friends  of  representation  according 
to  white  population." 

"A.  P.  Upshur,"  says  Tyler,  "was  the  Ajax 
Telamon  of  the  principle  favored  by  the  eastern 
people,  that  property  should  be  made  one  of  the 
factors  in  the  constitution  of  the  two  houses.  His 
speech  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  singular  specimens 
of  ingenuity  and  reason  ever  put  together.  A  mere 
majority  rule,  he  said,  was  based  on  no  a-priori  prin- 
ciple, but  the  expediency  of  society  was  the  single  crit- 
erion. A  system  of  checks  and  balances  had  been 
found  necessary  in  all  civilized  communities,  and 
while  the  equality  of  county  representation  could  not 
be  maintained,  due  regard  should  be  had  to  the  slave 
interest  of  the  east." 

The  feeling  indicated  by  Niles,  in  his  Register, 
between  the  representatives  of  the  two  sections,  was 
strong  from  the  beginning;  but  the  fires  of  discord 
did  not  blaze  out  until  some  time  after  the  convention 
had  met.  Gordon  was  an  optimist,  ever  buoyant  and 
hopeful;  and  dreamed  that  the  question  of  the  basis 
might  be  settled  amicably.  On  the  26th  of  October 
he  said  in  a  letter  to  his  wife:  "Our  convention 
matters  have  hitherto  progressed  with  as  much  tem- 
perateness  and  good  humor  as  the  nature  of  our  dis- 
cussions would  admit;  and  I  hope  we  shall  have  no 
disagreeable  excitement."  But  the  excitement  came. 
Randolph  of  Roanoke  discussed  "ghosts"  with  Chap- 
man Johnson ;  and  spoke  of  the  seat  filled  by  another 
advocate  of  the  white  basis  who  on  the  day  before 
had  been  sworn  in  as  the  successor  of  a  member  who 
had  died,  as  "a  seat  now  vacant."  The  situation 
grew  tenser,  as  the  debate  on  the  basis  continued. 
The  populace  and  the  newspapers  vied  with  each 
other  in  assuming  partisan  attitudes.  Niles,  in  his 
n 


1 62     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Register  of  October  31,  advocating  the  white  basis 
with  the  sneering  and  characteristic  contempt  of  an 
incipient  abolitionist,  said  that  if  it  should  be  adopted 
"the  old  families,  as  they  were  called, — persons  much 
partaking  of  the  character  of  the  old  nobility  of 
France,  imbecile  and  incorrigible,  will  pass  away; — 
and  a  healthful  and  happy,  bold  and  intelligent 
middle  class  rise  up,  to  sweeten  and  invigorate 
society,  by  rendering  labor  honorable;  and  'Rich- 
mond' will  not  any  longer  be  all  Virginia,  as  a  dis- 
tinguished gentleman  used  to  proclaim  that  it  was  in 
matters  of  politics  or  policy.  The  moral  effects  of 
these  things  over  the  slave  population  of  Virginia, 
and  in  the  adjacent  States,  are  hardly  to  be  calculated. 
The  presence  of  numerous  slaves  is  incompatible  with 
that  of  a  numerous  free  population;  and  it  is  shown 
that  the  labor  of  the  latter  in  all  the  important  opera- 
tions of  agriculture  or  the  arts,  except  the  cultivation 
of  cotton,  sugar,  tobacco  and  rice  (as  at  present  car- 
ried on)  is  the  cheapest  and  the  best.  And  in  truth, 
it  would  not  be  straining  the  facts  too  far  to  express 
an  opinion,  that  the  greatest  question  before  the  Vir- 
ginia Convention  is  the  perpetual  duration  of  negro 
slavery,  or  the  increase  of  a  generous  and  free  white 
population." 

Like  Banquo's  ghost,  the  slavery  spectre  was  be- 
ginning to  haunt  the  premises  of  the  minds  of  men, 
and  would  not  down.  Its  appearance  in  the  debates 
of  the  convention,  by  the  very  terms  of  the  situation, 
was  inevitable;  but  the  members  put  away  from 
themselves,  with  general  accord,  the  vision  of  "the 
greatest  question,"  suggested  by  the  outsider,  Niles. 

Gordon,  himself  a  large  slave-holder,  and  an  aris- 
tocrat by  descent  as  by  family  ties  and  social  associa- 
tions, was  nevertheless  profoundly  antagonistic  to 
that  view  of  republican  government  which  consid- 
ered property  as  one  of  its  corner-stones.  He  pre- 
sented with  great  force  and  steady  persistence  the 
white  basis  as  the  true  and  philosophic  solution  of  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     163 

vexed  question,  until  he  discovered  that  the  differ- 
ences of  the  two  parties  had  become  embittered  and 
their  antagonisms  relentless;  and  that  unless  they 
were  reconciled  the  convention  would  be  disrupted  in 
a  cataclysm  of  final  disagreement.  He  thereupon  set 
himself  to  work,  with  an  industry  and  an  absence  of 
personal  prejudice  which  were  essential  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  his  purpose,  to  the  task  of  devising 
a  practical  compromise  scheme  which  should  so 
evenly  adjust  and  balance  the  representative  power 
of  the  two  factions  as  to  induce  its  ultimate  accept- 
ance by  both. 

The  task  was  a  most  difficult  one.  The  situation, 
in  all  its  grave  significance,  had  already  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  whole  country;  and  the  partisans  of 
the  two  factions  came  from  other  States  to  listen  to 
the  great  debates,  and  to  applaud  the  one  side  or  the 
other,  where  the  convention  was  almost  exactly 
divided,  and  a  vote  or  two  might  mean  victory  or 
defeat. 

"If  it  be  settled  on  the  basis  of  white  population 
only,"  wrote  a  South  Carolinian  correspondent,  from 
Richmond,  to  one  of  the  Charleston  papers,  under 
date  of  November  21,  "Virginia  will  proclaim  to  the 
Union  tnat  slavery  ought  to  be  expelled  as  one  of  the 
elements  of  the  basis  of  representation;  that  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  her  constitution  it  ought  to  be 
expelled  as  an  element  in  the  basis  of  representation 
in  the  Federal  Government.  Are  not  the  Southern 
States  interested  in  this  proclamation?  Does  it  not 
deeply  affect  them  ? 

"The  great  matters  in  agitation  here,"  continued 
this  writer,  "make  me  forget  the  talent  and  elo- 
quence displayed  on  the  arena.  They  are  extraordi- 
nary. From  all  parts  of  this  State,  and  from  many 
of  the  other  States,  people  are  daily  flocking  here  in 
vast  multitudes.  Men  and  women  crowd  the  hall 
and  gallery  of  the  convention,  as  at  some  vast  show 
or  theatre.  All  feel  a  deep  interest  in  the  matters  of 


1 64    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

debate;  and  the  discussions  are  not  only  in  the  con- 
vention, but  in  the  boarding-houses,  taverns,  shops, 
public  streets  and  market-places. 

"Northern  doctrines  are  working  here  more  than 
is  seen  or  acknowledged.  Vehement  and  eloquent 
harangues  are  daily  delivered  in  the  convention. 
Temper  has  heretofore  maintained  her  uncertain  em- 
pire, but  many  symptoms  portend  stormy  debates. 
What  will  be  the  issue  no  one  can  tell.  I  fear  the 
worst,  and  hardly  permit  myself  to  hope  for  the  best. 
I  cannot  tire  you  with  portraits  of  splendid  and  great 
individuals.  I  merely  drop  you  a  hint  of  some  views 
of  a  general  nature  as  they  have  struck  me,  and  as 
they  affect  our  beloved  South  Carolina." 

The  two  factions  were  so  equally  matched  in  num- 
bers, that  for  a  long  time  it  seemed  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  get  a  majority  for  any  scheme  of  set- 
tlement. Neither  was  disposed  to  yield  to  the  other 
on  any  point;  and  the  good  temper  which  Gordon 
had  chronicled  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  convention 
was  beginning  to  disappear  as  the  question  of  "the 
basis"  continued  to  be  discussed.  Five  propositions 
for  a  compromise  between  those  supporting  the  white 
basis,  and  those  who  maintained  the  representation 
of  the  slave-interests,  were  brought  forward.  They 
were  formulated  and  offered  respectively  by  Mr. 
John  R.  Cooke  of  Frederick  County,  Mr.  Abel  P. 
Upshur  of  Northampton  County,  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall, Mr.  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  and  William 
Fitzhugh  Gordon.  Each  of  these  plans  of  compro- 
mise was  organized  on  the  theory  of  the  provision  in 
the  United  States  Constitution  with  reference  to 
slave-representation,  namely  a  three-fifths  representa- 
tion for  the  slave  population;  but  this  theory  of  the 
application  of  the  Federal  numbers  occurred  only  in 
respect  to  the  House  of  Delegates.  The  representa- 
tion in  the  State  Senate  was  left  in  each  instance  to 
be  determined  on  the  basis  of  the  white  population. 
The  distribution  of  representatives  in  House  and 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     165 

Senate  among  the  several  sections  of  the  State  was 
the  crucial  point  about  which  discussion  raged  and 
difficulty  presented  itself.  The  white  population  of 
one  section  feared  the  influence  and  power  of  the 
slave-owners  of  the  other  section ;  who,  on  their  side, 
demanded  for  property  that  consideration  and  place 
in  government  which  it  has  always  finally  succeeded 
in  obtaining  for  itself.  The  student  of  skilled  dialec- 
tics and  forensic  debate  can  find  nowhere  a  more 
brilliant  illustration  of  the  power  of  the  human  mind 
to  conceive,  and  the  capacity  of  language  to  present 
the  reasoning  of  intellect  with  intellect  than  in  the 
great  debates  over  these  several  schemes  upon  the 
floor  of  the  convention. 

The  respective  authors  of  the  compromise  plans 
were  all  men  of  unusual  individuality,  and  large 
public  experience.  John  Rogers  Cooke,  of  a  family 
that  on  its  literary  side  has  since  been  very  promi- 
nent, was  born  in  Bermuda  in  1788.  He  had  prac- 
tised law  with  distinction  and  success  for  many  years, 
and  had  been  counsel  in  a  number  of  important  cases 
in  the  higher  courts  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  had 
served  as  a  soldier  and  officer  in  the  military  com- 
mand that  marched  from  the  lower  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley in  1807,  when  the  Chesapeake  was  fired  on;  and 
he  had  legislative  experience  as  a  delegate  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  Virginia.  He  brought  to  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duties  in  the  convention  a  vigorous  and 
penetrating  intellect,  a  wide  and  critical  knowledge  of 
men,  and  a  deportment  of  lofty  and  generous 
courtesy  that  exalted  his  dignity  and  delighted  his 
acquaintances.  A  lasting  popular  reputation,  how- 
ever, is  seldom  the  heritage  left  by  the  ablest  lawyer 
or  legislator,  unless  accompanied  by  other  achieve- 
ment; and  that  of  John  Rogers  Cooke,  as  worthy  as 
it  was  to  survive,  has  been  largely  forgotten  by  the 
public  in  comparison  with  the  fame  which  was  won 
for  his  son,  Philip  Pendleton  Cooke,  by  his  poems,  or 
for  his  other  son,  John  Esten  Cooke,  by  his  stories 


1 66     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

and  romances  of  Virginia;  and  "Florence  Vane"  and 
"Surry  of  Eagle's  Nest"  will  be  remembered  long 
after  all  others  than  the  student  and  the  historian 
shall  have  ceased  to  read  the  great  debates  in  the 
Virginia  Convention  of  1829-30. 

Of  Abel  P.  Upshur  it  may  be  truthfully  affirmed 
that  Tyler's  characterization  of  him  as  the  Ajax 
Telamon  of  his  side  of  the  debate  was  well  deserved. 
He  was  endowed  with  a  powerful  mind,  a  large 
measure  of  restless  energy,  a  gift  of  speech  which 
was  conspicuous  even  in  that  assembly,  and  a  legal 
training  and  experience  that  had  brought  him  a  judge- 
ship  of  the  General  Court  three  years  prior  to  the  as- 
sembling of  the  Convention — a  position  to  which  he 
returned  with  the  convention's  close.  He  was  an 
ardent  advocate  of  the  slave-basis,  and  belonged  to 
the  extreme  pro-slavery  and  State-Rights  school  of 
politics.  The  reputation  which  he  made  in  the  con- 
vention was  but  the  precursor  of  that  which  came  to 
him  later,  when  in  1843,  upon  the  resignation  of 
Mr.  Webster  as  Secretary  of  State,  Upshur  was 
called  by  President  Tyler  to  fill  that  office.  He 
perished  in  the  vigor  of  intellectual  power  and 
splendid  manhood  by  the  accident  on  the  ill-fated 
Princeton. 

Howe,  in  his  "Virginia  Historical  Collections," 
says:  "Judge  Marshall,  whenever  he  spoke,  which 
was  seldom  and  for  only  a  short  time,  attracted  great 
attention.  His  appearance  was  Revolutionary  and 
patriarchal.  Tall,  in  a  long  surtout  of  blue,  with  a 
face  of  genius  and  an  eye  of  fire,  his  mind  possessed 
the  rare  faculty  of  condensation;  he  distilled  his 
argument  down  to  its  essence." 

Marshall  sympathized  and  acted  with  the  up- 
holders of  the  property  or  slave-basis;  but  always  in 
the  judicial  spirit.  It  was  in  recognition  and  depreca- 
tion of  the  inharmonious  drift  of  debate,  and  to  allay 
the  ever-rising  tide  of  passion,  that  he  offered  his 
compromise  measure.  He  was  at  this  time  seventy- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     167 

five  years  old;  and  his  participation  in  the  sessions 
of  the  convention  constituted  his  last  public  political 
service. 

One  of  the  five  compromises  offered  was  that  by 
Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh.  Leigh  was  a  lawyer  of 
great  ability  and  a  statesman  of  the  first  rank. 
While  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Vir- 
ginia he  had  offered  in  that  body  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions asserting  the  right  of  the  legislature  to  instruct 
the  Senators  of  Virginia  in  the  United  States  Senate. 
He  was  one  of  the  commissioners  who  had  prepared 
the  Revised  Code  of  the  State;  and  he  had  been  its 
Supreme  Court  reporter.  He  became,  after  his  ser- 
vice in  the  convention,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Rives  in 
the  Senate ;  and  resigned  after  two  years,  because  he 
could  not  in  conscience  obey  the  instructions  given 
him  by  the  Virginia  legislature,  whose  right  to  in- 
struct he  recognized.  Governor  Henry  A.  Wise  says 
of  Mr.  Leigh,  in  his  "Seven  Decades  of  the  Union," 
in  describing  his  speech  on  Benton's  expunging  reso- 
lution in  the  United  States  Senate : 

v. , 

"As  a  constitutional  and  civil  lawyer,  as  a  his- 
torian, as  a  logician,  as  a  patriot  jealous  of  power 
and  sensitive  to  any  encroachment  upon  limitations 
guarding  the  rights  of  legislation  and  the  freedom  of 
resolutions  and  laws,  as  well  as  of  debate,  and  as  a 
scholar  and  rhetorician  no  man  compared  with  Mr. 
Leigh  in  the  argument  on  the  topic  of  the  expunction. 
He  was  a  purist  in  his  Anglo-Saxon,  and  his  speech 
was  in  its  style  equal  to  that  of  the  Elizabethan  age 
of  English  literature,  not  surpassed  by  the  'well  of 
English'  of  Dean  Swift." 

Gordon  has  left  a  vivid  pen-picture  of  him  in  a 
letter  from  Richmond  written  in  1823: 

"I  heard  Mr.  Benjamin  W.  Leigh  before  the 
senate  yesterday  on  the  subject  of  his  mission  to  Ken- 


1 68     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

tucky.  He  is  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  sensible 
public  speakers  I  have  heard,  although  he  has  not 
fulfilled  my  expectation  as  an  eloquent  one.  His 
voice  is  very  clear  and  distinct,  but  incapable  of  a 
swelling  note,  if  I  may  so  say.  His  manner  is  natural 
and  ardent;  his  enunciation  perfectly  distinct,  with- 
out the  intonation  of  a  pathetic  speaker;  and  yet  he 
seems  to  feel  sensibly  himself  everything  he  utters. 
His  person  is  a  very  fine  one  for  a  man  below  the  ordi- 
nary size.  Indeed  the  symmetry  of  his  form  indi- 
cates the  agility  and  strength  of  his  intellectual  facul- 
ties, whilst  his  face  is  a  fine  subject  for  Lavater's 
most  favorable  speculations.  The  head  is  large  and 
well  shaped,  the  forehead  high  and  full,  though  not 
prominent,  running  almost  to  the  top  of  his  head; 
his  hair  raven  black,  and  curls  in  loose  ringlets.  The 
eye,  not  indeed  like  that  of  Shakespeare's  poet,  'in  a 
fine  frenzy  rolling,'  but  black,  rather  small,  keen, 
penetrating,  emitting  a  sprightly  and  intellectual  ray, 
as  it  glances  with  rapidity  at  everything  about  him. 
The  nose,  cheeks,  mouth  and  chin  all  unite  to  form 
a  fine  and  handsome  face.  His  manner  in  public  in- 
dicates the  confidence  and  composure  of  conscious 
ability,  without  either  arrogance  or  vanity." 

With  the  five  plans  of  settlement  on  a  compromise 
basis  before  it,  the  debates  in  the  convention  con- 
tinued to  rage  with  unabated  vigor,  and  undimin- 
ished  feeling. 

"This  convention  question,"  wrote  Gordon  to  his 
wife  on  December  18,  1829,  "has  taken  such  a  turn 
from  the  commencement  of  our  deliberations, — so 
much  bad  temper  has  been  exhibited, — that  I  have 
felt  unhappy  since  its  beginning.  My  mind  has  been 
absorbed.  It  seemed  at  one  time  that  the  safety  of 
the  State  was  jeoparded  by  the  bad  temper  of  a  few 
individuals.  I  think  now  we  shall  make  a  constitu- 
tion. The  proposition  which  I  offered  long  since, 
and  which  I  then  knew  was  the  only  one  that  could 
combine  a  majority  of  the  convention,  passed  yester- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     169 

day  evening  by  a  small  majority,  but  I  think  will  ulti- 
mately get  the  vote  of  the  whole  convention.  After 
we  shall  be  worried  with  several  other  propositions, 
I  think  now  ten  days  will  close  our  labors." 

On  Saturday,  December  19,  1829,  the  record  of 
the  Debates  states:  "The  final  question  was  now, 
at  length,  put  on  agreeing  to  Mr.  Gordon's  compro- 
mise, and  decided  in  the  affirmative  by  ayes  and  noes 
as  follows";  and  the  names  of  those  voting  are 
given,  showing  a  majority  of  fourteen. 

"The  question  as  to  the  basis  of  representation," 
says  Niles's  Register  of  the  week  following,  "seems 
finally  settled  by  the  passage  of  the  following  reso- 
lutions, being  Mr.  Gordon's  substitute  for  Mr. 
Upshur's  amendment:  'Resolved,  that  the  represen- 
tation in  the  Senate  and  House  of  Delegates  of  Vir- 
ginia, shall  be  apportioned  as  follows :  There  shall 
be  13  senators  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains, 
and  19  east  of  those  mountains.  There  shall  be  in 
the  House  of  Delegates,  127  members,  of  whom  29 
shall  be  elected  from  the  district  west  of  the  Alle- 
gheny Mountains,  24  from  the  Valley  between  the 
Allegheny  and  Blue  Ridge,  40  from  the  Blue  Ridge 
to  the  head  of  tidewater,  and  34  thence  below.' 

"Previous  to  the  passage  of  Mr.  Gordon's  resolu- 
tions," continues  Niles,  "Mr.  Doddridge's  amend- 
ment, offering  to  fix  the  white  basis  for  the  House 
of  Delegates,  and  the  federal  numbers  for  the  Senate, 
was  lost  by  a  tie,  48  to  48,  Mr.  Madison  voting  aye, 
and  Mr.  Marshall  no.  Several  of  those  who  had 
been  calculated  on  as  generally  supporting  the  white 
basis,  assigned  their  reasons  for  supporting  Mr. 
Gordon's  resolutions.  Among  these  were  Mr.  Hen- 
derson from  Loudoun  and  Mr.  Cooke  from 
Frederick." 

A  later  paragraph  vindicates  the  anticipation  ex- 
pressed by  Gordon  in  his  letter  above.  "Mr. 
Upshur's  resolutions,"  says  the  Register,  "were  set 
aside  to  make  room  for  Mr.  Gordon's  by  the  unani- 
mous vote  of  the  Convention,  except  Mr.  Madison." 


CHAPTER  XI 

IN  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION  OF  TWENTY- 
NINE-THIRTY ADVOCACY  OF  THE   WHITE 

BASIS RANDOLPH  OF  ROANOKE. 

Gordon's  attitude  towards  the  question  of  the 
basis  was  illustrative  of  the  temperament  of  the  real 
statesman.  Although  his  county  of  Albemarle  had 
voted  against  the  convention  by  a  majority  of  three, 
he  had  been  pronounced  in  the  canvass  for  election  in 
his  advocacy  of  the  white  basis.  He  had  supported 
his  views  in  the  body  itself  with  persistence  and 
courage  in  debate;  and  it  was  only  when  he  per- 
ceived the  growing  danger  of  its  disruption  as  the 
differences  of  opinion  grew  wider,  that  he  gave  his 
energies  and  abilities  to  discovering  a  solution  of  the 
vexed  question  that  should  be  at  once  equitable  and 
acceptable. 

His  first  speech  in  the  debate,  which  had  been  par- 
ticipated in  at  length  by  Mr.  Cooke,  Mr.  Green, 
Judge  Upshur,  Mr.  B.  W.  Leigh,  Mr.  Scott,  of 
Fauquier,  Mr.  Brooke,  Mr.  Doddridge,  Mr.  Philip 
Pendleton  Barbour,  and  others,  was  made  after  the 
convention  had  been  in  session  nearly  a  month.  It 
was  a  stalwart  presentation  of  the  claims  of  those 
who  advocated  the  white  basis,  and  of  opposition  to 
the  view  of  those  who  supported  the  cause  of  a  gov- 
ernment founded  upon  wealth. 

"An  attempt  is  now  made,"  he  said,  "in  the  modi- 
fication of  this  constitution  to  infuse  into  it  a  new 
principle,  unheard  of  till  now,  (so  far,  at  least,  as 
my  knowledge  extends),  in  any  free  government;  a 
principle  which  is  at  war  with  every  notion  we,  as 
Americans,  have  been  taught  to  hold  sacred,  and 
which  goes  to  make  the  elective  power  quadrate  with 
wealth.  The  design  is,  in  effect,  either  to  make 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     171 

slaves  constituents  to  the  legislature,  or  to  make  the 
tax  paid  on  them  an  ingredient  in  legislative  power. 
To  both  these  propositions  I  have  strong  objections. 
Sir,  the  plan  will  be  utterly  unavailing  to  the  object 
its  advocates  seek  to  accomplish  by  it.  If  the  conse- 
quences, which  are  to  flow  from  granting  us  an 
equality  of  rights,  are  really  such  as  they  apprehend, 
this  scheme  will  never  operate  to  prevent  the  evil 

*  *  *  Property,  sir,  in  any  just  scheme  of 
representation,  is  not  to  be  regarded  but  as  claiming 
the  protection  of  the  society.  It  is  in  aristocracy  that 
the  argument  is  urged  which  insists  on  giving  it  a 
political  power  as  possessed  by  individuals.  When 
you  admit  that,  you  make  a  House  of  Lords;  you 
give  the  rich  man  a  power  which  he  could  not  claim 
in  the  government  without  the  influence  of  his  wealth. 
But  gentlemen  propose  to  give  this  influence  to  prop- 
erty, not  as  property  in  the  hands  of  individuals,  but 
as  lying  in  certain  sections  and  subdivisions  of  the 
State.  And  does  this  better  the  matter?  Not  in 
principle,  for  the  principle  remains  the  same;  not  in 
practice,  for  there  its  only  effect  can  be,  and  is,  to 
produce  heart-burnings  and  jealousies  of  section 
against  section,  which  is  even  worse  than  of  man 
against  man.  Because  one  portion  of  the  State  has 
fewer  slaves  than  the  residue,  will  you  make  your 
basis  of  representation  rest  upon  that  sort  of  prop- 
erty, of  all  others  the  most  objectionable?  What 
must  be  the  effect  of  such  a  policy?  It  must,  it  will 
produce  discontent  everywhere,  save  only  among  the 
slave-holders  themselves. 

"Sir,  I  thought  it  unwise,  and  I  feel  that  it  is  most 
unpleasant,  to  bring  this  subject  into  the  discussion. 
I  tried  to  prevent  it  last  winter  in  the  legislature;  but 
it  is  forced  upon  us,  and  we  must  meet  it;  the  gentle- 
men will  not  let  us  avoid  it. 

"I  ask  what  good  would  it  do  to  Virginia,  were  we 
to  admit  representation  on  the  basis  of  the  whole 
slave  population?" 


172     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

In  this  speech,  which,  as  reported  in  full,  presents 
an  array  of  facts,  figures  and  deductive  arguments, 
covering  eight  of  the  closely  printed  and  fine-typed 
pages  of  Ritchie's  edition  of  the  "Debates,"  he  ranks 
with  the  strongest  of  those  who  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  white  basis  in  the  discussion.  It  was  small 
wonder,  therefore  that  some  of  those,  whose  parti- 
sanship exceeded  their  patriotism,  fiercely  resented 
his  abandonment  of  the  white  basis,  when  he  per- 
ceived the  impossibility  of  its  success;  or  that  this 
resentment  should  have  burned  brightest  in  the 
breeze  of  his  successful  achievement  of  the  compro- 
mise. Upon  a  motion  made  by  Mr.  Cooke,  to  pro- 
vide for  a  reapportionment  of  representation  every 
ten  years  after  the  adoption  of  Gordon's  scheme  of 
"the  mixed  basis,"  one  of  these  stalwarts  flamed  into 
anger  at  the  latter's  support  of  the  motion.  He  rose, 
he  said,  "to  congratulate  the  gentlemen  from  Albe- 
marle  on  his  happy  disposition,  which  enabled  him 
with  such  perfect  ease  to  change  his  sentiments  to 
suit  every  new  posture  of  affairs.  When  that  gentle- 
man had  first  appeared  in  the  convention,  nothing 
would  suit  him  but  a  basis  of  free  white  population; 
the  gentleman  would  not  so  much  as  listen  to  any- 
thing but  the  white  basis.  Now  he  was  most  anx- 
iously engaged  in  guarding  the  slave-holding  portion 
of  the  State.  The  gentleman's  one  and  only  object 
seemed  to  be  to  guard  his  own  proposition;  and  he 
turned  for  or  against  any  measure  proposed,  just  as  it 
threatened  to  affect  that  proposition.  He  had  risen," 
he  continued,  "expressly  with  a  view  to  congratulate 
the  gentleman,  which  he  did  most  heartily,  on  this 
happy  disposition." 

The  member  making  this  thrust  was  not  one  of 
the  more  prominent  men  of  the  body,  as  may  be 
imagined  from  the  character  of  the  taunt  itself.  But 
coming  from  any  source,  such  a  gibe  was  naturally 
irritating  to  a  man  of  Gordon's  sensitiveness  and 
lofty  ideals  of  honor  and  of  character.  He  was  a 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     173 

large  slave-owner,  himself;  and  most  of  those,  with 
whom  he  came  in  closest  personal  and  social  contact, 
were  slave-owners,  and  believers  in  slavery  as  an  insti- 
tution upon  which  society,  by  circumstance,  had  come 
in  Virginia  to  be  cornered  and  established.  Yet  he 
had  not  hesitated  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  white 
basis  as  affording,  in  his  belief,  the  truest  foundation 
for  legislative  representation  in  the  Commonwealth. 
Thoroughly  imbued  with  this  sentiment,  he  had 
nevertheless,  without  hesitation,  pitched  it  overboard 
in  the  passionate  storm  of  protracted  and  violent  de- 
bate, as  unavailable;  and  conceived  that  in  so  doing 
he  was  performing  his  highest  duty  to  society  and  to 
the  State.  His  reply  to  the  assault  upon  him  was  as 
dignified  and  good-tempered,  as  it  was  conclusive. 
He  said  "that  he  utterly  denied  and  repudiated  the 
unfounded  imputation  of  the  gentleman  from  Taze- 
vvell.  He  had  changed  none  of  the  opinions  that  he 
had  brought  with  him  to  that  convention  in  relation 
to  the  proper  and  just  basis  of  representation.  He 
had  contended  from  the  first,  and  he  had  never  re- 
tracted the  position,  that  white  population  was  the 
true  basis.  He  still  held  that  sentiment.  He  wished 
it  had  been  in  his  power  to  congratulate  ihe  gentle- 
man from  Tazewell  on  his  disposition  for  concilia- 
tion and  compromise.  For  his  own  part,  he  did  not 
profess  or  desire  an  incapacity  to  receive  light  from 
argument,  especially  argument  so  able  as  was  much 
that  had  been  heard  in  that  assembly.  He  never  had 
considered  wisdom  to  consist  in  a  dogged  obstinacy, 
that  persevered  against  every  consideration  of  policy 
and  all  the  force  of  reason.  The  gentleman's  charge 
gave  him  little  concern;  his  'withers  were  unwring'; 
nor  should  he  have  felt  the  gibe  at  all,  save  in  the 
unkind  spirit  which  it  betrayed." 

"The  wise  and  conciliatory  terms  for  compromis- 
ing the  formidable  disputes  which  had  grown  out  of 
the  basis  question,"  says  one  of  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall's biographers,  in  commenting  upon  the  work  of 


174     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  convention,  "led  to  a  better  temper  in  the  con- 
vention, and  powerfully  conduced  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  form  of  settlement  which  was  finally  adopted, 
and  incorporated  into  the  new  constitution." 

Other  questions  than  that  of  the  basis  of  repre- 
sentation engaged  the  final  days  of  the  assemblage, 
among  them  being  those  of  the  extension  of  the  right 
of  suffrage,  the  eligibility  of  government  officials  by 
popular  vote,  the  reform  of  the  judiciary  system  of 
the  State  and  the  anti-duelling  statute;  and  the  re- 
ports of  the  debates  show  that  Gordon  took  an  inter- 
ested and  more  or  less  prominent  part  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  all  these  important  matters. 

The  debate,  and  final  attitude  of  the  body  upon 
the  question  of  duelling  is  interesting,  as  tending  to 
show  that  in  spite  of  the  support  which  "the  code" 
then  received  at  the  hands  of  society,  some  of  the 
wisest  and  most  conservative  minds  among  the  Vir- 
ginians of  the  period  were  opposed  to  it.  The  de- 
bate arose  upon  the  motion  to  legitimize  the  already 
existing  act  of  the  General  Assembly,  passed  in  1810, 
which  provided  for  the  disfranchisement  and  dis- 
qualification to  hold  office,  of  any  citizen  of  the  Com- 
monwealth participating  in  a  duel,  by  conferring  the 
express  power  upon  the  legislature  to  enact  such  a 
law  under  constitutional  ordinance.  The  proposition 
excited  the  wrath  of  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  ap- 
parently to  as  great  an  extent  as  had  that  of  the  white 
basis. 

"Mr.  Randolph,"  wrote  a  newspaper  corre- 
spondent in  the  earlier  days  of  the  convention,  "is 
here  as  well  as  elsewhere,  an  object  of  great  curiosity. 
His  health  is  better  than  it  has  been  or  some  time 
past;  and  amongst  his  friends  he  indulges,  as  hereto- 
fore, in  a  great  deal  of  pleasantry  and  sarcasm.  He 
declares  his  determination  to  take  no  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  convention,  and  takes  his  seat  every 
day  at  the  back  of  the  president's  chair,  entirely  out 
of  the  range  of  the  speakers;  unable,  however,  to 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     175 

contain  himself  entirely,  he  is  every  now  and  then 
heard  in  a  shrill  undertone,  either  prompting  and 
encouraging  his  friends,  or  criticizing  his  opponents. 
He  is  annoyed  by  the  numberless  visitors  of  both 
sexes  that  crowd  the  lobby,  the  gallery  and  the  vacant 
seats  of  the  hall;  and  no  little  merriment  was  excited 
the  other  day,  when  his  voice  was  heard  amid  the 
crowd  at  the  door,  exclaiming:  'Mr.  Sergeant,  I'll 
thank  you  to  put  me  into  the  convention!'  He  is 
very  violent  on  the  subject  now  before  the  house,  and 
avows  that  if  the  white  basis  prevails,  the  State  must 
be  severed,  and  the  Southside  have  a  government  of 
its  own.  And  what  he  says,  sometimes  in  jest  and 
sometimes  in  irritation,  others,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  too 
often  utter  in  a  much  less  venial  spirit." 

A  curious  instance  of  this  "prompting  and  en- 
couraging his  friends"  by  Mr.  Randolph  appears  in 
the  report  of  the  debates  on  the  basis.  During  a 
speech  of  Mr.  Morris,  of  Hanover,  against  the  white 
basis,  he  said:  "Suppose,  to  quiet  our  discontents, 
Great  Britain  had  offered  to  allow  us  to  be  repre- 
sented, to  how  many  delegates  should  we  have  been 
entitled  ?  Let  me  see :  There  were  the  two  Adamses 
and  Hancock  and  Franklin  and  Lee  and  Henry  and 
the  Rutledges.  Why,  sir,  upon  the  principle  con- 
tended for  by  gentlemen,  we  could  not  have  been 
authorized  to  have  more  than  twenty  or  twenty-five 
of  them;  thirty  perhaps."  At  this  point  the  official 
reporter  interposes  in  parentheses  the  unexpected  and 
startling  comment:  "Here  a  shrill  and  very  peculiar 
voice  was  heard  to  say:  'Less  than  the  county  of 
Wilts !'  '  It  was  John  Randolph  from  his  seat 
behind  the  president's  chair.  He  did  not,  however, 
long  confine  himself  to  this  attitude  towards  the  con- 
vention, but  was  soon  actively  participating  in  the 
debates.  In  the  discussion  of  the  anti-duelling  reso- 
lution, Mr.  Randolph  said  that  he  verily  believed  the 
anti-duelling  act  to  be  in  utter  subversion  of  every 
fundamental  principle  of  free  government;  and  fol- 


176     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

lowed  up  his  proposition  with  an  ingenious  argument 
that  a  recognition  of  the  right  of  the  legislature  to 
disfranchise  for  one  description  of  offense,  carried 
with  it  the  implication  of  a  similar  power  to  interpose 
in  the  same  manner  on  any  other  behalf;  and  he  ap- 
plied the  practical  use  of  the  power  to  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  then  arising,  that  had  lent  no  small 
fuel  to  the  smouldering  fire  of  feeling  in  the  debate 
on  the  basis. 

"Mr.  President,"  he  said,  "it  has  been  my  misfor- 
tune to  have  lived  in  an  age  of  fanaticism  and  cant. 
And  I  would  go  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth 
to  find  a  refuge,  if  there  be  one,  from  this  spirit  of 
fanaticism  and  the  spirit  of  cant.     Sir,  why  not  at 
once  embody  the  entire  decalogue?     Aye,  and  the 
whole  Bible — old  and  new  Testaments — and  a  sys- 
tem of  philosophy  into  the  bargain, — and  gulp  down 
the  whole  at  one  oath?     The  power  is  the  same. 
The  principle  is  the  same.     Sir,  do  you  not  believe, 
— nay,  do  you  not  know, — that  there  are  persons  in 
this  assembly  who  believe  in  their  consciences  that 
to  hold  a  human  being  in  bondage  is  a  crime  of  the 
blackest  dye,  not  a  whit  inferior  to  murder  itself? 
This  spirit  of  fanaticism  is  spreading,  and  it  is  one 
of  the  strongest  feelings  that  exists  among  men  when 
once  it  gets  the  upper  hand.       Suppose    it    should 
choose  to  prescribe  an  oath  that  a  man  never  had 
held  and  never  would  hold  a  human  being  in  bond- 
age,  and  this  on  pain   of   disqualification   from   all 
offices  under  the   Commonwealth?     Is  not  that  an 
offence  as  much  in  the  teeth  of  the  Bill  of  Rights, 
and  of  the  great  and  sweeping  principles  it  lays  down 
as  to  all  men  being  by  nature  equally  free?     Then, 
conceive  to  yourself  a  Wilberforce,   or    a    Master 
Stephen,  setting  forth  before  the    House    of    Bur- 
gesses the  horrors  of  this  oppressive,  this  unjust,  this 
nefarious,  this  bloody,  this  cruel,  this  anti-Christian 
practice  of  holding  men  and  women  in  bondage.    Sir, 
no  matter  to  what  point  it  blows,  this  tornado  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     177 

fanaticism  sweeps  all  before  it.  Mr.  President,  was 
there  ever  a  constitution  on  earth  that  gave  the 
legislature  power  to  punish  particular  offenses  in  a 
particular  manner?  Is  it  not  an  anomaly?  Was 
such  a  thing  ever  heard  of  in  any  nation,  civilized 
or  uncivilized?  In  Christendom  or  Heathenesse? 
Leave  this  whole  matter  where  it  is.  Sir,  I  am  not 
so  much  surprised  at  seeing  some  men  taking  this 
course.  But  when  I  see  men  for  whose  character  I 
feel  the  most  profound  respect,  lending  themselves 
to  a  particular  purpose,  at  the  expense  of  the  great 
fundamental  principles  of  free  government,  what  am 
I  to  think?  Sir,  the  convention  have  no  right  to 
put  any  such  clause  into  the  constitution.  As  was 
very  truly  observed,  they  have  the  power  to  do  it; 
but  they  have  not  the  right  nor  the  shadow  of  right. 
The  traitor,  who  has  plotted  the  reintroduction  of  the 
Tarquins  into  the  Capitol, — he  is  not  pronounced 
unpardonable;  you  do  not  offer  to  him  an  oath  that 
he  has  never  plotted  to  overturn  your  government; 
he  is  not  to  be  put  to  the  torture  by  an  oath ;  but  your 
oath  is  in  the  very  spirit  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition, — 
it  puts  the  man  of  virtue  only  to  the  torture,  and 
passes  over  the  ruffian  and  assassin.  It  offers  a  prem- 
ium for  cowardice — a  premium  for  falsehood — a 
premium  for  servility — a  premium  for  slander — a 
premium  for  all  that  is  base  and  abject  in  human 
character. 

"Sir,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  with  the  gen- 
tlemen from  Chesterfield  (Mr.  Benjamin  Watkins 
Leigh),  that  place  a  man's  honor  in  one  scale,  and 
all  the  offices  in  the  gift  of  King  or  Kaiser  in  the 
other,  and  a  man  of  honor  would  spurn  them  all  in 
comparison  with  his  violated  feelings  and  his  vio- 
lated reputation.  Never  was  there  such  a  test  at- 
tempted under  the  sun — never,  at  least,  in  any  gov- 
ernment that  arrogated  to  itself  the  character  of  a 
free  republic.  This  is  the  entering  wedge.  Admit 

12 


178     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  principle,  and  you  may  go  on  allowing  one  party 
to  proscribe  the  other,  until  at  length  both  the  great 
parties  in  your  State  will  find  themselves  out  of  the 
pale  of  the  constitution.  Sir,  I  have  nothing  more 
to  say.  If  the  people  are  disposed  to  submit  to  ty- 
rannical laws  imposed  on  them  by  their  own  legis- 
lature, let  them  do  it." 

Randolph  had  been  the  Republican  leader  in  Con- 
gress, and  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com- 
mittee, three  decades  before.  He  had  been  elected 
to  the  United  States  Senate  to  fill  a  vacancy;  and 
he  was  famous  as  an  orator  throughout  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking world.  At  the  time  of  the  convention, 
whose  calling  he  had  opposed,  he  was  infirm  of  body, 
and  frail  in  health.  But  the  fires  of  his  genius 
burned  unabated;  and  his  speeches  in  the  debates 
glowed  and  scintillated  with  the  sarcasm  and  satire 
and  invective  which  charmed  his  friends  and  paraly- 
zed his  enemies.  Mr.  Grigsby,  in  his  "Discourse  on 
Littleton  Waller  Tazewell,"  speaks  of  Randolph 
as  "that  wonderful  man  whose  train  was  always 
tracked  by  fire;"  and  tells  with  keen  zest  of  how 
Tazewell,  who  greatly  admired  Randolph's  style  of 
speaking,  which  was  in  such  strong  contrast  to  his 
own,  would  "listen  to  his  speeches  with  the  relish 
of  a  schoolboy,  rubbing  his  hands  and  laughing 
heartily  as  the  orator  went  along." 

Randolph's  hostility  to  the  convention  and  its 
work  did  not  cease  even  with  its  adjournment.  He 
went  back  to  his  district,  and  made  a  speech  giving 
an  account  of  his  stewardship,  advising  the  people  to 
vote  against  the  constitution  as  amended.  He  said 
that  it  was  a  trick  of  the  convention  to  submit  its 
ratification  or  rejection  to  the  vote  of  the  people. 

"Who  called  the  convention?"  he  asked.  "The 
freeholders!  Who  had  the  right  to  say  whether 
the  work  was  done  according  to  their  wishes  but 
those  who  ordered  it?  No  one!  The  non- free- 
holders, according  to  all  the  rules  of  legitimate  in- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     179 

duction,  had  no  more  right  to  vote  on  that  question 
than  the  people  of  Hayti." 

In  the  progress  of  the  debate  on  the  anti-duelling 
oath  Gordon  observed  that  "during  the  time  he  had 
been  in  the  legislature,  he  had  never  heard  the  ques- 
tion started  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  the  statute, 
but  only  as  to  that  part  of  it  which  applied  to  mem- 
bers of  the  assembly,  and  which  went  to  add  an- 
other qualification  to  membership  beyond  those 
which  the  Constitution  laid  down." 

Philip  Doddridge,  one  of  the  acutest  and  ablest 
intellects  in  the  body,  took  issue  with  the  statement. 
He  said  that  "he  had  heard  some  of  the  ablest  ar- 
guments he  ever  had  heard  in  the  Assembly  in  sup- 
port of  the  idea  which  the  gentleman  from  Albe- 
marle  said  he  had  never  heard  broached  there.  He 
had  been  present  on  two  different  occasions  when  an 
application  had  been  made  for  pardon,  and  he  had 
resisted  both  applications  with  a  firm  determina- 
tion, if  possible,  to  cause  the  statute  to  re-act  on 
public  opinion.  He  had  voted  with  a  heavy  heart. 
He  had  heard  the  argument  the  gentleman  from 
Albemarle  said  he  had  never  heard,  and  that  from 
able  lips  in  the  case  referred  to  by  the  gentleman 
from  Chesterfield.  He  should  consider  it  a  bless- 
ing to  have  all  doubts  of  a  constitutional  kind  re- 
moved from  the  act,  and  to  see  the  law  and  public 
opinion  moving  harmoniously  together." 

Gordon  reiterated  his  statement  that  he  had  never 
heard  the  opinion  advanced  in  the  legislature  that 
the  anti-duelling  act  was  unconstitutional  in  its  ap- 
plication to  officers  of  the  Commonwealth  other  than 
members  of  the  General  Assembly;  and  was  sus- 
tained in  his  proposition  by  Mr.  Morris  of  Han- 
over and  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  who 
had  been  his  colleagues  in  the  House  of  Delegates. 
Mr.  Stuart  of  Patrick,  the  mover  of  the  resolu- 
tion in  regard  to  the  anti-duelling  act,  expressed  his 
opinion  that  duelling  was  a  pernicious  and  barbar- 


1 8o    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

ous  practice,  and  ought  to  be  suppressed.  Mr.  Wil- 
son of  Monongalia  characterized  it  as  an  odious 
practice  that  ought  to  be  put  down.  Mr.  McCoy 
thought  that  the  law  of  the  land  would  never  remedy 
the  evil  unless  public  opinion  went  with  the  law. 
Mr.  Campbell  of  Brooke,  denounced  it  as  one  of 
the  most  barbarous  crimes  of  the  age;  and  so  the 
debate  raged,  with  contrariety  and  diversity  of  opin- 
ion. But  Randolph's  characteristic  speech  failed  of 
its  purpose;  and  the  resolution  was  adopted  by  a 
vote  of  71  to  22,  Gordon  voting  with  the  majority. 

The  statute,  thus  constitutionally  legitimized,  con- 
tinues to  exist  to  the  present  day;  but  the  fact  that 
it  was  not  then  founded  upon  public  opinion  pre- 
vailed to  cause  legislature  after  legislature  to  make 
it  a  practical  nullity  through  relieving  of  the  dis- 
abilities imposed  by  it  successive  duellists,  until  pub- 
lic opinion  itself  changed,  and  the  law  became 
finally  as  effective  as  unnecessary,  because  of  the 
sentiment  against  "the  code."  Its  history  affords 
a  striking  illustration  of  the  truth  of  Randolph's 
assertion  that  morality  is  not  brought  about  by  legis- 
lation, and  that  men  cannot  be  made  good  by 
statutes. 

The  question  of  the  judiciary  engaged  the  ablest 
talents  of  the  body  in  its  discussion;  and  it  was  dur- 
ing this  debate  that  Marshall  declared:  "I  have  al- 
ways thought,  from  my  earliest  youth  until  now, 
that  the  greatest  scourge  an  angry  heaven  ever  in- 
flicted upon  an  ungrateful  and  sinning  people  was 
an  ignorant,  a  corrupt,  or  a  dependent  judiciary." 
Mr.  Grigsby,  in  his  "Discourse  on  Tazewell,"  speaks 
of  the  pre-eminence  of  Mr.  Tazewell  in  that  debate, 
even  in  comparison  with  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the 
body.  "But  the  occasion,"  he  says,  "which  impressed 
me  most  deeply  with  a  sense  of  his  abilities,  was  a 
discussion  on  the  tenure  of  the  judicial  office,  in  which 
Chief  Justice  Marshall,  Philip  P.  Barbour,  Stanard, 
Scott,  Giles,  and  others,  took  part.  Each  speaker 
was  conscious  of  the  powers  of  his  opponent;  pos- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     181 

terity,  in  the  presence  of  the  skilful  reporter,  as  well 
as  the  existing  generation  represented  by  some  of 
the  ablest  men,  were  the  spectators  of  the  combat; 
and  a  visible  air  of  solemnity  pervaded  the  manner 
of  each.  The  question  was  precisely  that  which 
sprung  from  the  repeal  of  the  judiciary  act  of  1800 
by  the  Congress  of  1802,  and  is  the  nicest  of  all  our 
party  questions.  It  was  a  magnificent  display  of 
parlimentary  tact  and  intellectual  vigor;  and  I  do  not 
think  that  an  hour  of  my  life  ever  glided  so  insen- 
sibly away  as  while  I  listened  to  that  debate.  Blows 
fell  fast  and  heavy.  I  saw  Judge  Barbour,  who 
though  president  of  the  convention,  as  the  house  was 
in  committee,  engaged  in  the  debate,  fairly  reel  in 
his  seat  from  one  of  Judge  Marshall's  massy  blows, 
which  he  returned  presently  with  right  good  will ;  but 
Tazewell,  if  I  may  use  a  figure  which  presented  the 
pith  of  the  argument  of  one  side,  and  which  was 
frequently  used  by  both, — Tazewell  fairly  'sunk  the 
boat'  under  the  Chief  Justice.  The  views  of  Taze- 
well prevailed;  and  in  such  a  contest,  where  all 
were  kingly,  and  in  which  the  combatants  were  magis 
pares  quam  similes — rather  equals  than  alike — if  the 
victor's  wreath  could  with  propriety  be  awarded  to 
a  single  individual,  I  do  not  think  I  err  in  saying 
that  it  would  have  been  assigned  by  a  majority  of 
the  hearers  to  Tazewell.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
effect  of  his  manner  and  argument  on  the  minds  of 
able  men  who  were  opposed  to  him  in  State  politics, 
which  then  raged  fiercely,  a  gentleman  from  the 
West,  who  held  for  several  years  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Delegates  and  in  the  Council,  speaking  of  the 
debate  to  me  on  the  day  it  occurred,  said:  'Why, 
Tazewell  trod  down  those  great  men  as  if  they  had 
been  children.'  ' 

The  convention  adjourned  on  the  I5th  day  of  Jan- 
uary, 1830;  and  the  constitution,  which  was  sub- 
mitted for  adoption  or  rejection  to  a  vote  of  the 
people,  was  ratified  and  adopted  by  a  conclusive  ma- 
jority. 


CHAPTER  XII 

ELECTED    TO    CONGRESS PERSONNEL    OF    THE    VIR- 
GINIA   MEMBERS THE    WHIG    PARTY 

THE  JEFFERSON  BIRTHDAY  DINNER 

Prior  to  his  election  to  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  Virginia,  which  assembled  in  Richmond  in 
the  autumn  of  1829,  Gordon,  while  still  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Delegates,  had  been  elected  to  the 
2ist  Congress  of  the  United  States  from  the  dis- 
trict composed  of  the  counties  of  Albemarle,  Am- 
herst,  Nelson,  Fluvanna  and  Goochland. 

Among  his  colleagues  from  Virginia  were  the 
Speaker,  Andrew  Stevenson,  William  S.  Archer, 
John  S.  Barbour,  Philip  Pendleton  Barbour,  and 
Philip  Doddridge.  The  Senators  from  Virginia  were 
worthy  of  their  great  predecessors  and  of  the  best 
of  those  who  came  after  them.  They  were  John 
Tyler  and  Littleton  Waller  Tazewell.  Andrew 
Jackson  had  just  been  elected  President  of  the  United 
States  by  a  vote  of  178  to  83  in  the  electoral  col- 
lege; and  Calhoun,  his  later  relentless  political 
enemy,  was  Vice-President,  and  presiding  over  the 
deliberations  of  the  Senate. 

"Andrew  Stevenson  of  Virginia,"  writes  Benton 
in  his  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  "was  re-elected  speaker 
of  the  House,  receiving  152  votes  out  of  191;  and 
he  classing  politically  with  General  Jackson,  this 
large  vote  in  his  favor,  and  the  small  one  against 
him  (and  that  scattered  and  thrown  away  on  sev- 
eral different  names  not  candidates),  announced  a 
pervading  sentiment  among  the  people  in  harmony 
with  the  Presidential  election,  and  showing  that  poli- 
tical principles,  and  not  military  glare,  had  produced 
the  General's  election." 

Stevenson  was  one  of  the  Piedmontese.     He  was 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     183 

born  in  Culpeper  County,  and,  though  at  this  time 
a  resident  of  Richmond,  and  a  representative  from 
the  metropolitan  district  of  the  State,  he  came  later 
to  claim  Albemarle  as  his  home,  by  virtue  of  his 
ownership  of  the  fine  estate  of  "Blenheim"  in  that 
county,  whither  he  retired  at  the  close  of  his  poli- 
tical career,  and  where  he  died  in  1857.  He  was  dis- 
tinguished as  a  lawyer,  and  had  served  several  terms 
in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  of  which  body 
he  had  been  Speaker.  From  1823  to  1834  he  was 
a  member  of  Congress,  resigning  in  the  last-named 
year,  after  having  presided  as  Speaker  over  the  de- 
liberations of  the  House  of  Representatives  from 
1824  to  the  year  of  his  resignation.  In  1836  he  was 
appointed  Minister  to  Great  Britain,  which  post  he 
filled  until  1841.  Upon  his  return  to  Virginia  he 
became  Rector  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  and 
is  said  to  have  "devoted  the  rest  of  his  life  to  the 
duties  of  that  office,  and  to  agricultural  pursuits." 

Of  Gordon's  other  colleagues  from  Virginia  dur- 
ing his  first  session  in  Congress,  the  most  prominent, 
if  not  the  ablest,  was  Philip  Pendleton  Barbour,  of 
the  neighboring  county  of  Orange,  the  represen- 
tative of  Madison's  old  district,  who  had  been  the 
leader  of  the  war  party  in  the  Virginia  legislature 
of  1812,  and  Speaker  of  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives  in  1821.  Barbour  had  resigned 
from  the  House  in  1825  to  become  a  judge  of  the 
General  Court  of  Virginia;  and  was  again  returned 
to  Congress  in  1827,  resigning  again  in  1830  on 
account  of  ill-health.  Two  years  later,  Gordon,  who 
admired  him  for  his  fine  ability,  his  lofty  character 
and  his  qualities  of  statesmanship,  attended  the  great 
gathering  of  the  Democracy  at  Baltimore,  in  its  first 
National  Convention,  held  on  the  2ist  of  May, 
which  adopted  the  celebrated  two-thirds  rule,  drawn 
by  Mr.  Saunders  of  North  Carolina : 

"Resolved:    That  each  State  be  entitled,   in  the 


1 84    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

nomination  to  be  made  of  a  candidate  for  the  Vice- 
Presidency,  to  a  number  of  votes  equal  to  the  num- 
ber that  they  will  be  entitled  to  in  the  electoral  col- 
lege, under  the  new  apportionment  in  voting  for 
President  and  Vice-President,  and  that  two-thirds  of 
the  whole  number  of  votes  in  the  convention  shall 
be  necessary  to  constitute  a  choice." 

Jackson  had  already  been  renominated  for  the 
Presidency  by  his  friends  in  the  New  York  legisla- 
ture; and  nothing  remained  for  the  Baltimore  Con- 
vention to  do  except  to  ratify  his  nomination  and 
name  a  candidate  for  Vice-President.  Gordon  was 
eager  for  the  nomination  of  Judge  Barbour — an  ob- 
ject which  he  attempted,  but  in  which  he  failed. 
"When  I  arrived  in  Washington,"  he  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Gordon,  under  date  of  27th  May  following,  "I  found 
everything  in  motion  preparatory  to  the  Balti- 
more Convention,  whither  I  went  at  the  request  of 
many  of  my  constituents  and  exerted  myself  to  pro- 
cure a  nomination  of  Judge  Barbour,  in  which  I  think 
I  might  have  succeeded  had  his  friends  from  Vir- 
ginia composed  the  delegation  from  Virginia."  Van- 
Buren  received  203  of  the  283  votes  represented, 
and  Judge  Barbour  49.  Later  President  Jackson 
appointed  Barbour  Judge  of  the  United  States  Cir- 
cuit Court;  and  in  1836  he  became  an  Associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
in  which  high  office  he  continued  until  his  death  in 
1841. 

Judge  Barbour's  cousin,  John  S.  Barbour,  of  Cul- 
pcper,  another  colleague  of  Gordon's,  has  been  dealt 
with  in  an  earlier  chapter. 

William  S.  Archer  was  another  of  Gordon's  as- 
sociates from  Virginia  in  the  2ist  Congress.  He  oc- 
cupied a  leading  place  in  the  politics  of  the  period. 
His  father  had  been  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution  on 
the  staff  of  "Mad  Anthony"  Wayne,  and  had  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  the  capture  of  Stony  Point. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     185 

The  son  was  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  for 
a  period  continuing,  with  the  exception  of  one  year, 
from  1812  to  1819;  and  a  member  of  Congress 
from  1820  to  1835.  In  this  latter  service  Mr.  Ar- 
cher was  especially  prominent  in  connection  with  the 
debates  over  the  Missouri  Compromise  Bill;  and  in 
1841  he  became  a  member  of  the  United  States 
Senate  from  Virginia,  and  was  chairman  of  its  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Relations. 

Yet  another  Virginian  representative  of  talents  in 
this  Congress  was  Philip  Doddridge,  whose  post- 
humous fame  has  not  been  commensurate  with  his 
ability,  and  whose  advocacy  of  the  white-basis  in  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1829-30  illustrated  an 
intellectual  force,  a  gift  of  debate,  and  a  brilliancy 
of  statesmanship  that  were  not  inferior  to  those  of 
the  best  minds  in  that  assemblage  of  illustrious 
men.  Doddridge  was  said  to  be  scarcely  less 
celebrated,  in  his  day,  in  the  western  part  of  the 
State  for  his  eloquence  and  splendid  talents  than  was 
Patrick  Henry  in  his  generation  in  the  eastern  por- 
tions of  the  Commonwealth.  He  was  a  native  of 
Wellsburg,  in  Brooke  County  and  died  at  Wash- 
ington in  1832,  while  a  member  of  Congress,  in  the 
morning  of  his  growing  influence  and  fame. 

The  biography  of  John  Tyler,  then  one  of  the 
Senators  from  Virginia,  and  later  President  of  the 
United  States,  has  been  written  in  a  monumental 
work  by  his  youngest  son,  Dr.  Lyon  Gardiner  Tyler, 
the  present  distinguished  president  of  the  ancient 
and  venerable  College  of  William  and  Mary.  He 
had  represented  Charles  City  County  in  the  House 
of  Delegates  from  1811  to  1816,  when  he  was 
elected,  and  again  twice  re-elected,  to  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives.  Once  more,  in 
1826,  he  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Delegates 
in  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  and  in  1825 
he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth.  On 
the  1 8th  of  January,  1827,  he  was  chosen  by  the 


1 86     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

legislature  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  to  succeed 
John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  and  resigned  the  Gov- 
ernorship to  accept  that  office.  During  this  term 
of  his  senatorship  he  was  a  member  of  the  great  State 
Constitutional  Convention;  and  in  1833  he  was  re- 
elected  to  the  Senate.  In  1839  he  was  nominated 
on  the  Whig  ticket  for  Vice-President  with  General 
William  Henry  Harrison;  and  was  elected.  Presi- 
dent Harrison  died  a  month  after  his  inauguration; 
and  Vice-President  Tyler  became  President.  During 
his  administration  Texas  was  annexed  to  the  Union. 
He  presided  in  1861  over  the  deliberations  of  the 
Peace  Conference,  called  by  the  Virginia  Legislature 
at  his  suggestion,  which  met  at  Washington;  and 
he  died  in  the  service  of  his  State  and  country  on 
the  i yth  January,  1862,  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  while 
a  member  of  the  first  Confederate  States  Congress. 
Of  his  great  ability,  his  far-sighted  and  disinterested 
statesmanship,  his  incorruptible  personal  and  polit- 
ical integrity,  and  his  unselfish  patriotism  there 
was  no  more  genuine  admirer  than  Gordon,  who 
though  differing  with  him  politically  in  the  later 
period  of  his  public  career,  continued  to  his  death 
to  cherish  the  personal  friendship  which  had  grown 
up  and  continued  between  them  from  the  time  of 
their  early  service  together  as  members  of  the  Vir- 
ginia House  of  Delegates. 

The  other  Senator  from  Virginia  was  Mr.  Taze- 
well.  "It  is  a  coincidence  in  the  lives  of  Mr.  Taze- 
well  and  his  father,"  says  Mr.  Grigsby  in  his  "Dis- 
course," "that  the  father  was  elected  to  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  to  fill  a  vacancy  caused  by  the 
resignation  of  John  Taylor  of  Carolina;  and  that 
the  son,  after  an  interval  of  thirty  years  from  the 
election  of  the  father,  was  chosen  to  fill  the  vacancy 
in  the  Senate  made  by  the  resignation  of  the  same 
individual;  and  that  father  and  son  were  twice 
elected  President  of  the  Senate." 

William  Wirt  has  left  a  graphic  portraiture  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     187 

Tazewell  in  his  youth  in  "The  Old  Bachelor";  and 
Francis  Walker  Gilmer,  himself  one  of  the  most 
gifted  and  brilliant  young  men  of  his  period,  has 
drawn  him  with  masterly  touch  as  he  was  before  he 
entered  the  United  States  Senate.  Mr.  Grigsby's 
"Discourse"  presents  him  at  length,  and  in  the  ma- 
jesty of  his  intellect  and  person.  It  was  said  of  him 
on  the  occasion  of  his  death,  by  his  fellow  townsman, 
Mr.  George  Loyall  of  Norfolk,  that  "Virginia  had 
conferred  upon  him  her  highest  official  trusts.  Her 
generous  confidence  he  requited  with  a  deep  and  fer- 
vent devotion,  laying  upon  the  altar  of  her  stern  and 
simple  political  faith  the  offerings  of  matured  wis- 
dom, and  upholding  in  all  seasons,  with  a  lofty 
patriotism  and  the  utmost  energies  of  his  powerful 
intellect,  her  right  and  honor.  Standing  upon  the 
great  principles  that  lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  insti- 
tutions, the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government,  as 
limited  and  defined  by  the  compact  and  the  rights  of 
the  States  in  all  their  integrity  he  regarded  as  vital 
to  the  preservation  of  the  Confederacy  and  the  sta- 
bility of  our  republican  system.  Whether  in  repell- 
ing open  assaults  upon  the  Constitution,  or  meeting 
at  the  threshold  covert  abuses  of  delegated  power, 
no  man  within  our  border  saw  more  clearly,  or  more 
directly  and  firmly  trod  the  path  of  duty  before  him. 
Personal  asperities  engendered  by  political  strife, 
and  which  too  often  follow  in  the  train  of  collisions 
of  opinion  and  partisan  warfare,  were  alien  to  his 
nature." 

He  had  been  elected  to  the  legislature  soon  after 
coming  to  the  bar;  and  he  was  one  of  its  members  in 
the  memorable  session  of  1798  that  saw  the  introduc- 
tion of  Mr.  Madison's  famous  resolutions.  He  went 
to  Congress  from  the  Williamsburg  district  in  the 
next  year,  succeeding  Judge  Marshall  in  that  body. 
He  declined  a  re-election,  and  removed  from 
Williamsburg  to  Norfolk,  where  he  practised  his 
profession  until  1825,  when  he  was  elected  United 


1 88     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

States  Senator.  He  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate 
in  1833,  and  was  soon  after  elected  Governor,  which 
office  he  also  resigned  before  the  end  of  his  term.  It 
has  been  said  of  him  that  "it  was  the  subject  of  deep 
regret  that  one  possessing  such  colossal  powers  should 
have  been  so  unwilling  to  exert  them";  and  he  has 
been  compared  in  his  career  to  Chief  Justice  Wilmot 
of  England,  as  one  of  the  great  men  of  history  who 
sought  an  obscurity  that  he  could  not  win. 

The  roster  of  the  Federal  Senate  of  this  session 
bore,  among  others  hardly  less  prominent,  the  illus- 
trious names  of  Daniel  Webster,  John  M.  Clayton, 
James  Iredell,  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  Hugh  L.  White, 
Edward  Livingston,  William  R.  King  and  Thomas 
H.  Benton.  In  the  House  of  Representatives  were 
Edward  Everett  of  Massachusetts,  Churchill  C. 
Cambreleng  of  New  York,  James  Buchanan  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Daniel  L.  Barringer  of  North  Carolina, 
Robert  W.  Barnwell  and  Warren  R.  Davis  of  South 
Carolina,  Richard  Henry  Wilde  of  Georgia,  Richard 
M.  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  John  Bell,  David  Crockett, 
Cave  Johnson  and  James  K.  Polk  of  Tennessee, 
James  Shields  of  Ohio  and  Edward  D.  White  and 
Clement  C.  Clay  of  Louisiana.  The  talent  was 
largely  with  the  South;  and  the  politics  of  the  "Vir- 
ginia School"  were  dominant. 

Congress  met  December  7,  1829;  and  Jackson 
began  with  his  first  message  the  self-willed  and  im- 
perious policy  that  served  at  an  early  date  to  alienate 
many  of  his  former  followers,  and  to  disrupt  what 
had  been  the  republican-democratic  party  of  Jeffer- 
son. Many  who  started  out  in  that  session  as  the 
President's  devoted  friends  and  followers,  later  be- 
came his  stoutest  enemies. 

Domestic  matters  detained  Gordon  at  home,  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  Constitutional  Convention; 
and  he  did  not  arrive  in  Washington  until  the  latter 

5 art  of  January,    1830.     His  general  allegiance  to 
ackson  remained  unshaken  through  this  session,  and 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     189 

the  following  one;  and  we  find  him  writing  in  De- 
cember, 1830,  to  Mrs.  Gordon  of  the  political  com- 
pany he  was  keeping:  "I  wrote  you  that  I  was  at 
Mrs.  Peyton's,  but  did  not  tell  you  the  mess.  We 
have  Mr.  Tazewell,  Mr.  White,  the  Senator  from 
Tennessee,  the  Senator  from  North  Carolina,  Mr. 
Ellis  from  Mississippi,  and  many  others, — all  Jack- 
son men." 

The  President  advocated  in  his  message  the  direct 
election  of  President  and  Vice-President  by  the  peo- 
ple; he  advised  an  inquiry  by  Congress  into  the 
constitutionality  and  propriety  of  renewing  the  char- 
ter of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  which  was  to 
expire  in  1836;  and  he  favored  the  distribution  of 
the  surplus  revenue  among  the  States.  The  strict 
constructionists,  among  whom  the  Virginia  Demo- 
crats were  conspicious,  were  not  long  in  parting  com- 
pany with  Jackson,  upon  one  or  another  of  his  poli- 
cies. Gordon,  calling  on  him  at  the  White  House 
during  the  second  session  of  the  2ist  Congress,  took 
occasion  to  remind  him  that  he  had  always  been  his 
political  and  personal  friend,  though  he  had  found 
himself  forced  to  oppose  in  Congress  some  of  the 
measures  which  the  President  had  advocated,  be- 
cause in  his  opinion  they  were  wrong.  The  Presi- 
dent's reply  was  eminently  characteristic. 

"I  do  not  care  a  damn,"  he  said,  "for  a  friend 
who  stands  by  me  only  when  he  thinks  I  am  right. 
The  kind  of  friends  I  want  are  those  who  will  stand 
by  me  when  they  think  I  am  wrong!" 

Jackson  made  no  allusion  in  his  first  message  to 
the  tariff ;  and  this  was  already  a  matter  of  burning 
import  to  the  South.  The  Crawford  Democrats  be- 
lieved that  Jackson  could  not  be  relied  on  to  main- 
tain their  hostility  to  protection,  the  iniquities  of 
which  had  been  the  subject  of  condemnatory  resolu- 
tions, not  only  in  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia 
during  Gordon's  membership  in  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates, but  also  in  the  legislatures  of  Georgia  and 


190    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

South  Carolina,  which  had  denounced  the  tariff  of 
1828  as  unjust,  oppressive  and  unconstitutional. 
This  action  on  the  part  of  South  Carolina  developed 
later  into  the  assertion  by  that  State  of  the  doctrine 
of  Nullification; — a  doctrine  which  Gordon,  while 
consistently  opposed  to  a  protective  tariff,  never 
adopted  as  a  part  of  his  political  creed;  though  the 
little  band  of  Nullifiers  in  Congress,  with  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  at  their  head,  included  some  of  his  closest  per- 
sonal friends.  His  attitude  to  the  question  was  that 
of  such  resistance  to  unconstitutional  and  oppressive 
legislation  as  Virginia  had  made  to  the  Alien  and 
Sedition  laws, — a  resistance,  which  Benton  says  in 
his  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  "was  an  appeal  to  the 
reason,  judgment  and  feelings  of  the  other  States, 
and  which  had  its  effect  in  the  speedy  repeal  of  those 
laws." 

The  loose-constructionists  in  the  Democratic  party 
were  in  favor  of  protection  and  of  internal  improve- 
ments, both  of  which  doctrines  the  "Virginia  School" 
of  Democracy  rejected  as  heretical.  The  National  Re- 
publicans, successors  of  the  Federalists,  beheld  their 
ranks  enlarged  by  the  accessions  of  loose-construction 
Democrats ;  the  anti-masonic  party  sprang  up  with  a 
mushroom  growth  in  several  of  the  Northern  States; 
the  influence  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  allied 
itself  to  the  inchoate  mass  of  opposition  to  Jackson. 
The  tremendous  personality  of  the  man  himself, — 
his  courage,  his  resourcefulness,  his  self-reliance, — 
and  the  inability  of  the  elements  antagonistic  to  him 
to  unite  closely  and  compactly  upon  principles  of  op- 
position left  the  victory  at  last,  after  a  long  and  bit- 
ter struggle,  in  Jackson's  hands. 

The  union  of  his  opponents,  such  as  it  was,  found 
its  cohesive  force,  during  the  stormy  period  of  his 
two  administrations,  solely  in  this  antagonism  which 
each  constituent  element  felt  towards  him;  and  the 
Whig  party,  thus  originated,  continued  for  several 
years,  and  until  there  was  a  final  crystallization  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     191 

political  opinions  and  policies  into  party  action,  to 
contain  many  men  of  widely  divergent  minds  upon 
the  political  questions  of  the  day,  who  marched 
under  its  banner  of  opposition  to  Jackson,  without 
subscribing  to  any  of  the  Whig  tenets  of  Webster 
and  of  Clay. 

It  was  only  a  seeming  harmony  that  existed  be- 
tween the  Northern  and  Southern  sections  of  the  so- 
called  Whig  party  of  the  period ;  for  many  southern 
Whigs  were  as  staunch  believers  in  State-Rights  as 
were  the  Southern  Democrats;  and  slavery  had  its 
friends  among  Southern  members  of  the  party,  as 
it  had  its  opponents  among  those  who  called  them- 
selves Whigs  in  the  North. 

.From  the  organization  of  the  Whig  party  in  1833 
in  opposition  to  Jackson,  to  the  time  in  1837  of  the 
return  of  Calhoun,  Tazewell,  Gordon,  and  the  State- 
Rights  Democrats  who  had  co-operated  with  it,  to 
the  Democratic  party,  hostility  to  Jackson  was  its 
fundamental  tenet.  This  must  appear  at  once  from 
a  glance  at  its  extraordinary  make-up.  Into  the 
Adullam  cave  of  discontent  with  the  President  were 
gathered  the  incongruous  hosts  of  the  old  National 
Republicans,  or  "loose-constructionists ;"  the  Nulli- 
fiers,  led  by  Calhoun;  the  Jeffersonian  Republicans, 
who  were  "strict  constructionists,"  and  while  oppos- 
ing nullification,  yet  condemned  Jackson's  proclama- 
tion as  unconstitutional;  other  southern  Republi- 
cans, like  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  who  sympathized 
with  every  move,  however  extreme,  against  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  and  yet  were  willing  to  take 
up  arms  in  opposition  to  the  force-bill  and  the  procla- 
mation; the  Democrats,  who  antagonized  a  bank, 
yet  regarded  the  President's  removal  of  the  deposits 
as  arbitrary,  usurpative  and  unconstitutional;  the 
anti-masons,  whose  party  had  grown  up  about  the 
historic  masonic  episode  of  Morgan;  and  others, 
whose  political  opinions  agreed  with  those  of  no 
party  or  faction.  It  was  a  strange  aggregation 


192     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

which  included  in  it  Webster,  and  Calhoun,  and 
Henry  Clay,  and  Robert  W.  Barnwell,  and  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  John  Tyler,  and  Warren  R. 
Davis,  and  William  F.  Gordon. 

At  the  time  of  Gordon's  first  arrival  at  the  Capital, 
the  famous  Webster-Hayne  debate  was  in  progress. 
It  did  not  interest  him.  He  listened  to  Mr.  Web- 
ster for  a  little  while,  and  wrote  home  that  "he  did 
not  strike  the  Virginia  note."  Gordon  had  been 
listening  for  three  months  to  Marshall,  and  John 
Randolph,  and  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  and  Up- 
shur  and  Tazewell  in  the  Virginia  Convention. 

On  the  I3th  of  April,  1830,  the  leading  Demo- 
crats in  Washington  gave  a  dinner  to  celebrate  Mr. 
Jefferson's  birthday.  It  appears  to  have  been  the 
first  occasion  on  which  such  a  testimonial  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  great  republican  leader,  then  dead  not 
quite  four  years,  was  ever  made;  and  there  was  no 
one  more  interested  in  the  event  than  was  Gordon, 
who  took  an  active  part  in  promoting  it,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  committee  of  Congressmen  who 
had  in  charge  the  arrangements  for  the  function.  In 
anticipation  of  the  occasion,  which  was  expected  to 
be  a  notable  one,  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon  on  the 
9th  of  March  from  Washington: 

"We  have  determined  to  celebrate  the  birthday  of 
Mr.  Jefferson ;  and  yesterday  I  waited  on  Mrs.  Ran- 
dolph to  ascertain  the  day  of  his  birth.  We  expect 
to  give  an  impulse  to  free  and  true  principles  by  a 
celebration  of  the  advent  of  our  great  Star  of  Free- 
dom." 

The  dissensions  in  the  ranks  of  Democracy  were 
emphasized  by  the  occurrences  at  this  dinner,  which 
was  attended  by  both  President  Jackson  and  Vice- 
President  Calhoun.  The  strict-constructionists  were 
in  charge  of  the  details,  including  the  toast-list;  and 
the  toasts  indicated  an  exaltation  of  the  doctrine  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     193 

the  reserved  rights  of  the  States,  according  to  the 
gospel  of  Jefferson. 

Niles'  Register,  a  National  Republican  organ,  con- 
tained in  its  issue  of  April  24,  1830,  a  long  account 
of  the  dinner;  and  blazoned  abroad  its  political 
significance. 

"Jefferson's  birthday,  13  April,  1830,"  says  the 
Register,  "was  celebrated  by  a  numerous  party  of 
members  of  Congress  and  others,  at  Brown's  Hotel. 
Mr.  John  Roane  of  Virginia  presided,  assisted  by 
Mr.  Bibb  of  Kentucky,  Mr.  Woodbury  of  New 
Hampshire,  Mr.  Grundy  of  Tennessee,  Mr.  Cam- 
breling  of  New  York,  Mr.  Gordon  of  Virginia,  and 
Mr.  Overton  of  Louisiana.  Among  the  invited 
guests  were  the  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  Secretaries  of  State,  War  and 
the  Navy.  After  dinner  twenty-four  regular  toasts 
were  given,  with  speeches  of  considerable  length 
from  Messrs.  Bibb,  P.  P.  Barbour,  Woodbury, 
Hayne,  and  Wayne  of  Georgia;  and  some  of  the 
volunteers  by  Messrs.  Hubbard  of  New  Hampshire, 
Potter  of  North  Carolina;  and  Pope,  Governor  of 
Arkansas,  made  a  few  remarks.  There  were  about 
eighty  volunteers;  together,  one  hundred  and  four 
toasts." 

President  Jackson  took  fire  at  what  he  regarded 
as  a  suggestion  of  nullification  during  the  speaking; 
and  after  the  regular  toasts  offered  "a  volunteer," 
which  later  became  a  slogan  of  his  followers : — "Our 
Federal  Union:  It  must  be  preserved."  Calhoun 
accepted  the  implied  challenge,  and  offered  his 
"volunteer:" — "The  Union:  Next  to  our  liberty 
the  most  dear;  may  we  all  remember  that  it  can  only 
be  preserved  by  respecting  the  rights  of  the  States, 
and  distributing  equally  the  benefit  and  burden  of  the 
Union." 

It  was  the  open  declaration  of  a  state  of  war  on 
either  side,  where  hostilities  were    actually    begun. 
13 


194     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Niles  continues,  in  the  same  issue  of  the  Register: 
"It  (the  dinner)  was  intended  for  political  effect, — 
to  bring  out  the  weight  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  name  in 
favor  of  the  new  doctrines  concerning  State  Rights, 
and  against  internal  improvements  and  domestic 
manufactures;"  and  concludes  that  "the  speeches 
and  the  toasts  abundantly  prove  this." 

Gordon's  simple  announcement  in  his  next  letter 
home,  April  23,  1830,  was:  "We  had  a  splendid 
celebration  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  birthday.  The  pa- 
pers and  political  parties  are  making  it  a  dinner  for 
political  effect.  I  trust,  if  it  has  any,  it  will  be  to 
bring  into  the  administration  of  our  affairs  the  prin- 
ciples of  our  great  countryman." 

The  House  Journal  of  the  first  session  of  the  2ist 
Congress,  which  adjourned  on  the  last  day  of  May, 
1830,  shows  that  Gordon  took  the  oath  as  a  mem- 
ber on  January  25,  preceding.  On  the  ist  of  Feb- 
ruary he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon: 

"I  am  greatly  pleased  that  we  can  communicate  so 
speedily  by  letter;  and,  if  need  be,  that  at  any  time 
I  can  soon  be  at  home.  I  removed  last  evening  on 
the  Hill  to  Dawson's  boarding-house,  where  I  have 
a  genteel  mess  of  Virginia  and  Southern  members. 
I  am  quite  comfortably  situated,  with  a  wood  fire, 
which  is  a  luxury  after  having  been  ten  winters  dusted 
with  the  coal. 

"As  yet  I  have  made  but  few  acquaintances.  Be- 
ing a  stranger,  I  wait  for  the  civilities  of  others.  I 
have  not  as  yet  got  cards  for  visiting,  which  I  am 
told  are  necessary  to  the  city  circles.  I  shall,  how- 
ever, endeavor  to  retain  as  much  of  my  country  man- 
ners as  possible.  Colonel  Barbour  is  my  next  door 
neighbor.  Mr.  Tazewell  and  Mr.  Alexander,  from 
Virginia,  on  the  southside  of  James  River,  Doctor 
Hall  from  North  Carolina,  Colonel  Benton,  Senator 
from  Missouri,  and  Mr.  Yancey  of  Kentucky,  for- 
merly from  Albcmarle,  and  J.  S.  Barbour,  form 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     195 

my  immediate  mess.  We  dine  and  live  alone;  and 
from  appearances  live  quite  genteelly.  I  have  not 
yet  seen  Mrs.  Stevenson.  To-morrow  I  am  to  dine 
with  the  President  which  will  be  a  new  scene." 

He  was  not  long,  however,  in  making  acquaint- 
ances and  friends.  Many  of  his  Virginia  associates 
were  in  Washington ;  and  in  his  next  letters  home  he 
tells  Mrs.  Gordon  of  seeing  her  friend,  Mrs.  Ran- 
dolph and  two  of  her  daughters,  at  Mr.  Van  Bu- 
ren's,  and  of  meeting  other  friends. 

"I  visited  Mrs.  Randolph  a  few  days  after  I  saw 
you  last,"  runs  his  letter  of  February  7,  following. 
"She  seems  to  be  comfortably  fixed,  and  the  estab- 
lishment showed  much  of  taste  in  all  that  I  observed. 
She  seems  a  little  pensive,  and  says  she  feels  some 
of  the  pains  of  an  exile." 

"The  session  is_  becoming  somewhat  more  inter- 
esting than  it  has  been,"  he  writes  in  the  same  month, 
"although  I  cannot  yet  see  what  the  policy  of  the 
administration  will  result  in." 

His  votes  were  consistently  in  line,  throughout  the 
session,  with  the  political  sentiments  which  he  had 
always  entertained.  He  voted  against  pension  bills 
and  against  all  the  money  bills  offered  for  internal 
improvements,  including  the  bill  to  make  a  national 
road  from  Buffalo  to  New  Orleans,  a  bill  for  a  stock 
subscription  by  the  Government  to  the  Maysville  and 
Lexington  Turnpike,  a  bill  for  the  incorporation  of 
the  Alexandria  Canal  Company,  a  bill  for  govern- 
ment subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Louisville  & 
Portland  Canal  Company;  and  he  voted  to  sustain 
the  President's  veto  of  the  Maysville  Turnpike  bill. 

During  this  session  he  was  deeply  interested  in 
the  contested  election  case  of  George  Loyall  against 
Thomas  Newton,  involving  a  seat  in  the  House  from 
the  Norfolk,  Virginia,  district.  Mr.  Loyall  had 
been  his  friend  and  associate  in  the  General  Assem- 
bly and  in  the  Convention;  and  Gordon  had  the 


196    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

gratification  of  seeing  the  contest  decided  in  his  favor. 
"Loyall  has  got  his  seat,"  he  writes  jubilantly  to 
Mrs.  Gordon  on  the  i6th  of  February,  1830,  "and 
is  a  great  acquisition  to  us." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

IN     CONGRESS THE     NULLIFIERS NULLIFICATION 

AND  SECESSION 

The  second  session  of  the  2ist  Congress  beginning 
on  the  6th  day  of  December,  1830,  saw  the  breach 
between  Jackson  and  many  of  its  members,  his  for- 
mer supporters,  still  widening.  The  President's 
message  again  attacked  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States;  and  dealt  with  the  subject  of  internal  im- 
provements from  the  standpoint  of  the  strict  con- 
structionists.  Congress,  however,  passed  a  harbor 
improvement  bill  which  Jackson  concluded  to  sign; 
and  the  Jeffersonian  Republicans,  who  had  been  fol- 
lowers of  William  H.  Crawford,  grew  more  uneasy 
and  anxious.  Crawford  had  practically  retired  from 
politics,  and  was  out  of  public  life;  and  the  Virginia 
Jeffersonians  were  beginning  to  look  to  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  as  his  successor.  Crawford,  himself  a  Vir- 
ginian by  birth,  had  moved  to  Georgia  in  his  boy- 
hood, where,  studying  law  and  entering  politics,  he 
illustrated  his  talents  by  a  subsequent  career  of  great 
distinction.  He  had  been  United  States  Senator; 
had  declined  the  Secretaryship  of  War  under  Mr. 
Madison,  and  had  filled  with  ability  and  success 
the  office  of  Minister  to  France.  He  had  succeeded 
Dallas  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  had  been 
a  sturdy  opponent  of  internal  improvements  by  the 
Government.  He  had  been  nominated  for  President 
through  the  influence  of  the  Virginia  school,  as  the 
most  conspicious  representative  of  the  Jeffersonian 
Democracy;  and  had  received  forty-one  votes  in  the 
electoral  college,  including  those  of  Virginia  and 
Georgia.  But  disease  had  now  sapped  his  vigor; 
and  Calhoun's  political  star  seemed  to  be  in  the  as- 
cendant. 


198     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

The  estrangement  between  Calhoun  and  Jackson 
had  grown  into  undisguised  hostility;  and  in  the 
same  month  in  which  Congress  adjourned  in  1831, 
the  Vice-President  published  his  famous  attack  upon 
the  President.  Gordon,  who  had  been  a  follower  of 
Crawford,  took  sides  with  Calhoun  as  against  Jack- 
son. Calhoun's  attack  upon  the  President,  which 
had  been  expected  since  the  Jefferson  birthday  din- 
ner, was  followed  by  the  dissolution  of  the  Cabinet. 
Jackson  for  some  time  past  had  hardly  seemed  to 
trust  his  Calhoun  secretaries;  but  relied  for  advice 
and  assistance  upon  Mr.  VanBuren,  and  a  party  of 
unofficial  friends,  who  were  dubbed  by  his  enemies 
"the  Kitchen  Cabinet."  VanBuren  resigned  from 
the  Cabinet  in  order  to  enable  Jackson  to  request  the 
resignation  of  its  other  members,  which  he  promptly 
did. 

The  war  between  Jackson  and  Calhoun  was  now 
on  in  all  its  ferocity;  and  was  characterized  by  such 
a  bitterness  of  feeling  and  of  expression  on  the  part 
of  their  respective  followers  as  has  been  seldom 
known  in  American  politics.  Calhoun's  hostility  to 
Jackson  had  its  inception  in  the  former's  strict  con- 
struction views  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States; 
and  was  the  beginning  of  that  mighty  championship 
of  the  "institution"  of  slavery,  which  depended  for 
its  existence  on  the  State-Rights  doctrine  that  was 
so  long  and  ably  upheld  by  his  relentless  and  inex- 
orable logic. 

Though  Mr.  Calhoun  has  been  condemned  by  the 
generations  which  have  followed  the  abolition  of 
slavery  for  his  attitude  upon  that  profoundly  perplex- 
ing and  difficult  problem,  yet  an  unsympathetic  and 
often  hostile  biographer,  of  an  antagonistic  school  of 
political  thought,  has  paid  him  the  tribute  that  his 

1        f  1    •  UT-1 

genius  must  compel  rrom  history.  I  he  name  or 
Calhoun,"  says  Dr.  Von  Hoist  in  his  biography  in 
"The  Statesmen  Series,"  "conveys  a  much  more  defi- 
nite idea  to  the  American  people  than  that  of  either 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     199 

Webster  or  Clay ;  and  this  difference  will  be  steadily 
increased  in  his  favor.  The  simple  explanation  of 
this  remarkable  fact  is  that  Calhoun  is  in  an  infi- 
nitely higher  degree  the  representative  of  an  idea; 
and  this  idea  is  the  pivotal  point  on  which  the  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  has  turned  from  181,9  to 
nearly  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  their  existence 
as  an  independent  republic.  From  about  1830  to 
the  day  of  his  death,  Calhoun  may  be  called  the  very 
impersonation  of  the  slavery  question.  From  the 
moment  when  he  assumes  this  character  his  figure 
towers  far  above  all  his  contemporaries,  even  Jack- 
son not  excepted;  while  up  to  that  time  he  is,  in 
spite  of  his  uncommonly  brilliant  career,  only  an  able 
politician  of  the  higher  and  nobler  order,  having 
many  peers  and  even  a  considerable  number  of  su- 
periors among  the  statesmen  of  the  United  States." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  here,  or  even 
to  attempt  an  outline  of  the  life  of  Mr.  Calhoun, 
which  was  personally  as  blameless  as  that  of  some 
of  his  distinguished  compeers  was  the  reverse;  or  to 
recount  the  positions  which  he  filled  with  conspicuous 
dignity  and  honor.  The  idea  for  which  he  labored, 
and  upon  which  he  spent  the  energies  of  an  unsel- 
fish and  devoted  personality,  perished  almost  within 
his  gaze,  and  its  memory  with  many  is  that  which 
the  conquerors  of  lost  causes  keep.  But  the  spirit 
in  which  the  great  statesman  and  logician  main- 
tained his  cause,  and  the  genius  and  glory  which  he 
manifested  in  its  maintenance  are  worthy  of  the  most 
vivid  and  glowing  page  in  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can Republic. 

About  Calhoun,  in  the  struggle  which  began  over 
protection,  and  went  through  nullification  to  seces- 
sion and  war,  were  gathered  at  this  early  period  a 
group  of  men  who  for  their  ability  and  patriotism 
may  not  inaptly  be  compared  to  the  Girondins  who 
assembled  about  Isnard  and  Barbaroux,  to  perish 
for  freedom,  in  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution. 


200    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

The  story  of  the  Nullifiers  is  a  story  of  talents  and 
of  tragedy. 

Conspicuous  among  the  South  Carolinians  in  the 
2ist  Congress  were  Robert  W.  Barnwell,  Warren 
R.  Davis,  and  George  McDuffie,  all  three  of  whom 
were  adherents  of  the  State-Rights  view,  and  with 
each  of  whom  Gordon  maintained  an  intimate  per- 
sonal association.  Mr.  Barnwell's  career  is  pre- 
sented in  a  later  chapter.  Of  the  other  two  there 
was  none  of  his  associates  in  Congress  with  whom 
Gordon  stood  in  a  friendlier  or  more  admiring  rela- 
tion than  with  Warren  R.  Davis,  orator,  wit,  poet 
and  party  leader — who  was  the  delight  of  every 
social  gathering  that  he  entered;  whom  Benton 
named  as  one  of  the  ablest  debaters  of  the  session; 
to  whom  John  Randolph  appealed  in  a  memorable 
letter  to  Mark  Alexander,  as  to  the  leader  of  the 
Jeffersonian  Republicans  in  the  House;  and  whose 
death  occurring  on  the  2Qth  of  January,  1835,  while 
Congress  was  in  session,  was  deplored  in  the  Senate 
by  Mr.  Calhoun  in  a  speech  of  lofty  and  splendid 
eulogium. 

Davis,  who  was  born  in  May,  1793,  settled  in 
Pendleton,  South  Carolina,  at  the  same  time  that 
McDuffie  settled  in  the  same  place.  "Mr.  Davis 
succeeded,"  says  his  biographer,  "and  got  business. 
Mr.  McDuffie  had  none."  Davis  was  elected  to 
Congress  in  1824,  and  continued  to  represent  his 
district  until  his  death  in  1835.  "His  life  was  short," 
the  writer  above  quoted  remarks  of  him,  "and  I 
had  almost  said  a  merry  one.  Every  company  in 
which  he  mingled  experienced  the  joy  of  his  wit. 
Indeed,  humor  was  his  nature;  he  rioted  always  in 
its  wild  luxuriance."  He  espoused  the  cause  of  Nul- 
lification with  all  the  fiery  ardor  of  his  disposition 
and  his  brilliant  speeches  and  his  witticisms,  after 
his  untimely  death,  came  to  be  household  words  in 
the  mouths  of  his  friends.  He  was  the  chairman 
of  the  important  House  Judiciary  Committee,  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     201 

which  Gordon  became  a  member  as  soon  as  he  en- 
tered Congress;  and  of  which  the  other  members 
of  that  session  were  William  W.  Ellsworth  of  Con- 
necticut, Henry  Daniel  of  Kentucky,  Edward  D. 
White  of  Louisiana,  Thomas  F.  Foster  of  Georgia, 
and  Samuel  Beardsley  of  New  York. 

"A  cat  is  a  good  nullifier,"  Davis  said  one  day, 
as  he  chanced  to  tread  on  a  feline  tail,  and  felt  aveng- 
ing claws  set  in  his  leg.  "She  knows  it  is  her  tail  that 
I  trod  on,  and  she  doesn't  care  a  rap  whose  foot  it 
is  that  she  claws." 

His  gift  of  graceful  versification  is  illustrated  in 
the  lines  written  by  him  to  the  old  Scotch  air  of 
"Roy's  Wife  of  Ardavalloch :" 

"Johnson's  wife  of  Louisiana, — 

Johnson's  wife  of  Louisiana, — 
The  fairest  flower  that  ever  bloomed 
'Neath  southern  sun  on  gay  savannah. 

"The  Inca's  blood  flows  in  her  veins, — 

The  Inca's  dreams  her  dark  eyes  lighten, — 
Child  of  the  sun,  like  thee  she  reigns, 
To  cheer  our  hopes,  our  sorrows  lighten. 

"Her  mind  is  radiant  with  the  lore 

Of  ancient  and  of  modern  story; 
Her  sprightly  wit,  of  nature's  store, 
Bedecks  her  with  a  rainbow-glory. 

"  'Twas  such  a  vision,  bright  though  brief, 

In  early  youth  my  fond  heart  rended; 
Then  left  me,  like  the  withered  leaf, 
On  life's  most  rugged  thorn  suspended." 

It  was  on  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Davis'  funeral,  held 
at  the  Capitol,  that  the  attempt  to  assassinate  Presi-, 
dent  Jackson  was  made  by  Lawrence,  a  crazy  car- 
penter. This  occurrence,  which  came  near  being  a 
tragedy,  is  graphically  described  in  a  letter  from 
President  Tyler,  then  one  of  the  Senators  from  Vir- 
ginia, to  his  son  Robert  Tyler,  written  from  Wash- 
ington, January  31,  1835: 

"My  son :  I  am  very  much  pleased  at  a  letter  which 


202     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

General  Gordon  showed  me  from  you  this  morning, 
in  return  for  his  kind  recollection  of  you  in  having 
forwarded  Mr.  Adams'  oration  (on  Lafayette's 
death).  You  very  properly  returned  him  your 
thanks  for  the  favor,  and  he  is  obviously  very  much 
gratified  at  the  terms  employed  in  your  letter.  I 
dined  a  few  days  since  at  General  Jones'  with  Gov- 
ernor Dickerson,  who  enquired  after  you.  My  ob- 
ject, however,  in  writing  to  you  was  to  give  you  an 
account  of  an  occurrence  which  transpired  yesterday, 
and  to  ask  that  you  will  walk  down  to  Judge  Sem- 
ple's  and  inform  him  of  the  facts.  ' 

"Warren  R.  Davis  died  two  nights  ago,  and  yes- 
terday the  funeral  ceremonies  were  performed  in  the 
House  of  Representatives.  The  members  of  both 
Houses  were  present,  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  members  of  his  Cabinet.  The  pro- 
cession moved  from  the  hall,  through  the  rotunda, 
to  the  east  porch  of  the  Capitol, — the  House  first, 
the  Senate  second,  followed  by  the  President,  etc. 
I  was  unwell,  and  concluded  not  to  go  to  the  grave; 
and  after  getting  to  the  porch,  I  stepped  out  of  the 
line  of  procession  to  the  right.  I  had  not  been  stand- 
ing there  more  than  a  minute  before  I  heard  an  ex- 
plosion, similar  to  that  produced  by  an  ordinary 
cracker,  which  caused  me  to  turn  around,  when  I 
perceived  a  man  standing  in  front  of  the  President, 
about  four  steps  off,  with  a  pocket  pistol  pointed  at 
the  President.  The  report  immediately  followed, 
of  the  same  character  with  that  I  had  a  moment 
before  heard.  The  President  immediately  raised  his 
cane  and  made  at  him;  but  before  he  could  strike, 
the  fellow  was  seized  and  thrown  down,  the  Presi- 
dent still  pressing  on  him,  and  when  preparing  to 
stick  his  cane  into  him  was  drawn  off.  The  fellow 
was  immediately  transferred  to  the  civil  authorities, 
and  now  lies  in  jail  to  await  his  trial  at  a  future 
day. 

"It  seems  that  he  had  two  pistols,  each  of  which  he 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     203 

had  attempted  to  discharge;  but  they  were  with  per- 
cussion locks;  the  day  was  very  damp,  a  thick  mist 
prevailing,  and  although  the  caps,  by  their  explosion, 
must  have  been  as  fine  as  were  ever  used,  the  powder 
did  not  ignite.  They  were  found  to  be  well  loaded 
with  the  finest  powder,  and  it  is  almost  a  miracle  that 
they  did  not  go  off. 

"The  man  is.  said  to  be  an  Englishman  by  birth; 
to  have  been  in  this  city  some  three  years;  to  be  a 
painter  by  trade;  and  to  have  given,  on  more  occa- 
sions than  one,  evidences  of  derangement.  He  was 
asked,  I  learn,  by  Mr.  Randolph,  the  sergeant-at- 
arms  of  the  House,  what  led  him  to  attempt  the  life 
of  the  President.  He  replied:  'Because  he  killed 
my  father  three  years  ago!'  There  is  nothing  but 
madness  in  all  this. 

"The  effort  will  doubtless  be  made  to  turn  this 
to  political  effect.  Although  Ravaillac  killed  Henry 
IV.  of  France,  although  one  madman  attempted  to 
shoot  George  III.,  and  another  killed  Mr.  Percival, 
the  prime  minister,  in  the  Parliament  house;  yet  if 
a  madman  attempts  to  kill  General  Jackson  it  must 
be  used  for  party  effect. 
******  ** 

"Your  father, 

JOHN  TYLER/' 

Singularly  brilliant  and  unusual  as  were  the  talents 
of  Warren  R.  Davis,  they  were  eclipsed  by  those  of 
his  great  compeer  and  fellow  South  Carolinian, 
George  McDuffie.  McDuffie  was  born  in  Georgia  in 
1788.  He  studied  law,  and  settling  at  Pendleton, 
South  Carolina,  failed  to  get  practice  until  taken  into 
partnership  by  a  prominent  local  lawyer  with  a  con- 
siderable business.  His  rise  in  his  profession,  thence- 
forth, was  almost  without  parallel;  and  cases  poured 
in  upon  him  from  every  direction.  In  1821  he  was 
elected  to  Congress,  and  thenceforth  "delighted 
Senators  and  governed  men  with  his  eloquence."  He 


204    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

took  front  rank  among  the  opponents  of  the  tariff 
legislation  of  the  period;  opposed  the  removal  of  the 
deposits  by  Jackson  in  a  powerful  speech,  character- 
izing it  as  uan  act  of  usurpation,  under  circumstances 
of  injustice  and  oppression,  which  warranted  him  in 
saying  that  the  rights  of  widows  and  orphans  had 
been  trampled  in  the  dust  by  the  foot  of  a  tyrant;" 
and  was  the  strongest  and  boldest  of  the  Nullifiers  in 
the  celebrated  Nullification  Convention  of  South 
Carolina.  In  December,  1834,  he  was  elected 
Governor  of  his  State;  and  in  1842  he  became  a 
Senator  from  South  Carolina  in  the  United  States 
Senate.  Here  he  was  a  prominent  advocate  of  the 
passage  of  the  Sub-Treasury  Bill  and  of  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas,  both  of  which  measures  he  had  once 
antagonized. 

Lacking  the  genial  qualities  which  endeared  War- 
ren R.  Davis  to  the  hearts  of  his  associates,  Mc- 
Duffie  was  in  youth,  manhood  and  old  age  remarka- 
ble for  his  taciturnity  and  reserve.  It  has  been  said 
of  him  that  "he  literally  seemed  to  commune  with 
himself;  yet  there  were  occasions,  when  he  met  old 
friends  and  companions,  in  which  he  seemed  to  enjoy 
life  with  as  much  zest  as  any  man."  Chief  Justice 
O'Neall  of  South  Carolina  said  of  McDuffie  in  an 
address  delivered  in  1851,  the  year  of  his  death: 

"With  a  thousand  times  more  honesty,  McDuffie 
has  surpassed  the  most  brilliant  efforts  of  France's 
greatest  orator,  Mirabeau.  McDuffie,  with  a  head 
as  clear  as  a  sunbeam,  with  a  heart  as  pure  as  honesty 
itself,  and  with  a  purpose  as  firm  as  a  rock,  never 
spoke  unaccompanied  with  a  passionate  conviction  of 
right,  which  made  his  arguments  as  irresistible  as  the 
rushing  flood  of  his  own  Savannah." 

The  story  of  Nullification  does  not  need  repeti- 
tion here  at  any  great  length  or  in  detail.  The  Nulli- 
fication Ordinance  was  adopted  by  a  State  Conven- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     205 

tion  held  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  November 
19,  1832.  It  formally  declared  the  tariffs  of  1828 
and  of  1832  to  be  "null,  void  and  no  law,  nor  bind- 
ing upon  South  Carolina,  her  officers  and  citizens;" 
and  it  forbade  the  collection  of  tariff  duties  within  the 
State  after  February,  1833.  It  also  declared  that 
should  the  United  States  use  force,  South  Carolina 
would  secede  from  the  Union. 

The  relation  of  the  question  of  Secession  and  of 
the  tremendous  tragedy  of  the  War  between  the 
States  in  1861-1865,  in  organizing  which  South  Caro- 
lina bore  a  leading  part,  to  the  nullification  measures 
of  1832  have  been  dealt  with  by  many  historians 
and  writers.  The  verdict  of  impartial  history  must 
be  that  this  was  no  new  and  astounding  doctrine  in 
politics  thus  advanced,  although  its  appearance  was 
so  grave  and  threatening;  but  that  in  one  form  or 
another  the  doctrine  of  nullification  had  already  been 
proclaimed  by  more  than  half  the  States  at  that  time 
constituting  the  Union:  by  Georgia,  Virginia,  Ken- 
tucky, Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  Ohio,  New  York,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Maine. 

On  December  16,  1832,  the  President  issued  his 
Nullification  Proclamation,  and  sent  a  naval  force 
to  Charleston  Harbor.  A  tremendous  excitement 
agitated  the  States,  and  was  felt  throughout  the  Un- 
ion. The  military  of  South  Carolina  were  gathered 
together,  and  volunteers  strengthened  the  militia  for 
defense. 

On  December  24,  1832,  Gordon  wrote  from 
Washington  to  Mrs.  Gordon: 

"I  might  have  visited  you  at  Christmas.  The 
weather  is,  however,  very  cold;  and  I  daily  expect 
the  river  will  be  frozen  up.  Indeed  our  anxiety  for 
the  fate  of  the  country  is  such  that  I  am  unwilling 
to  be  absent  a  single  day  from  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment. We  of  the  South  have  been  sadly  disap- 


206     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

pointed  in  the  course  of  the  President  towards  the 
wrongs  of  our  country.  A  spirit  of  violence  and  not 
of  conciliation  seems  to  be  the  order  of  the  day 
which  if  persevered  in,  must  have  the  worst  conse- 
quences. The  course  of  South  Carolina  was  marked 
by  much  indiscretion,  and  should  therefore  have  been 
met  by  more  prudence  on  the  part  of  the  President. 
I  yet  hope  for  the  best.  The  mediation  of  Virginia 
may  turn  away  for  a  time  the  disaster  of  disunion — 
bad  enough  at  any  time,  and  in  any  way,  but  greatly 
to  be  deprecated,  if  stained  with  civil  blood.  We  are 
waiting  with  great  anxiety  to  hear  how  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  President  will  be  received  in  South  Caro- 
lina. You  must  not  be  unhappy  about  our  affairs. 
Virginia  will  have  an  important  part  to  act  in  the 
great  political  drama  which  seems  to  be  at  hand; 
and  I  doubt  not  will  act  worthily  of  herself.  A  little 
prudence  in  our  rulers  would  yet  compose  everything. 
Of  that,  however,  there  is  but  slight  hope,  and  if  the 
good  sense  of  the  people  does  not  overrule  the  mad- 
ness of  the  rulers,  great  confusion  may  ensue." 

The  Force  Bill  was  introduced,  and  a  great  debate 
followed  in  the  United  States  Senate,  in  which  Cal- 
houn,  who  had  resigned  the  Vice-Presidency,  and 
now  represented  South  Carolina,  defended  the  State- 
Rights  doctrine  with  unsurpassed  ability.  He  intro- 
duced his  famous  resolution,  reciting  that  the  States 
are  united  "as  parties  to  a  constitutional  compact"; 
and  that  the  theory  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  "are  now  or  ever  have  been  united  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  social  compact,  and  as  such  are  now 
formed  into  one  nation  or  people"  is  erroneous  and 
false,  both  in  history  and  reason.  Calhoun  sup- 
ported the  resolution  in  a  speech  of  unanswerable 
power  and  inexorable  logic,  before  which  Webster, 
the  champion  of  centralization,  sat  mute,  defeated  by 
the  South  Carolinian's  argument.  The  Federalist 
writers  have  since  skimmed  the  surface  of  the  his- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     207 

toric  incident,  or  have  fled  from  it  as  an  instance  in 
illustration  of  Calhoun's  "metaphysical  politics." 

But  the  horrid  front  of  war  disappeared.  Clay, 
the  great  compromiser  and  pacificator,  brought  in  a 
tariff  bill,  which  provided  that  the  tariff  should  be 
gradually  reduced,  so  that  after  the  expiration  of  ten 
years  it  should  become  "a  tariff  for  revenue  only." 
South  Carolina  rescinded  her  nullification  ordinance; 
and  the  disputed  proposition  whether  Jackson  would 
have  undertaken  to  carry  out  his  threat  to  "hang 
Calhoun"  in  the  event  of  secession,  was  never  settled. 

The  tariff  question  and  the  slavery  question  were 
already  beginning  to  become  the  subjects  of  a  politi- 
cal agitation,  which  has  continued  in  the  former  in- 
stance, with  more  or  less  persistence,  down  to  the 
present  day;  and  in  the  latter  until  the  abolition  of 
"the  institution"  by  the  judgment  of  war.  In  May, 
1832,  Gordon  wrote  from  Congress  to  Mrs.  Gordon: 

"To-morrow  we  enter  on  the  Tariff  debate  in 
which  the  destinies  of  the  Union  are  involved.  After 
that  is  dismissed  or  acted  on,  we  shall  shortly  ad- 
journ. I  shall  not  despair  of  the  republic,  although 
I  am  hoping  almost  against  hope.  There  is,  how- 
ever, this  consolation,  that  affairs  can  scarcely  be 
worse  than  they  are  at  this  time.  The  great  interests 
of  the  Confederacy  are  in  conflict;  and  all  the  com- 
posure and  virtue  of  the  best  men  are  necessary  to 
settle  them  harmoniously.  Our  own  State  for  the 
present  has  less  to  apprehend  from  any  vicissitudes 
than  any  other.  She  has  made  so  many  offerings  on 
the  altar  of  peace  and  union,  that  even  her  enemies 
must  acknowledge  'if  Rome  must  fall,  that  she  at 
least  is  innocent.' ' 

The  tariff  act  to  which  Gordon  alluded  was  ap- 
proved on  July  14,  1832,  after  having  passed  the 
House  of  Representatives  by  a  vote  of  132  yeas  to 
65  nays,  and  the  Senate  by  32  yeas  to  16  nays.  It 


208     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

repealed  all  previous  acts  in  relation  to  fixing  the 
rates  of  duties,  and  imposed  new  ones,  that  were 
free,  specific,  compound,  ad  valorem  and  minimum. 
The  free  list  was  greatly  extended;  but  the  tariff  had 
not  yet  become  a  tariff  for  revenue  only.  It  was  the 
tariff  that  South  Carolina  met  with  Nullification  and 
the  threat  of  secession. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

IN   CONGRESS THE    BANK   CONTROVERSY THE   RE- 
MOVAL  OF   THE   DEPOSITS THE   VIRGINIA 

RESOLUTIONS 

The  bill  to  enforce  the  tariff,  commonly  called  in 
South  Carolina  "the  Bloody  Bill,"  whose  opponents 
in  the  Senate,  with  the  exception  of  Senator  Tyler  of 
Virginia,  had  refused  to  vote,  was  passed  and  signed 
by  Jackson,  with  the  result  of  arousing  great  feeling 
in  the  South.  But  in  the  spring  of  1833  the  Presi- 
dent stirred  up  a  profounder  and  wider-spread  excite- 
ment than  anything  in  connection  with  Nullification 
had  caused.  In  his  first  administration  President 
Jackson  had  recommended  that  Congress  should 
order  the  removal  of  the  public  funds  from  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  where  existing  law  designated 
they  should  be  kept,  with  authority  in  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  to  cause  their  removal,  provided  he 
should  thereafter  give  his  reasons  for  such  removal 
to  Congress.  Congress  had  refused  by  a  large  ma- 
jority to  follow  the  President's  recommendation. 
Jackson,  believing  his  reelection  to  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent for  a  second  term  indicated  public  approval  of 
his  attitude  towards  the  Bank,  determined  to  force 
the  removal  of  the  government  deposits. 

Louis  McLane,  of  Delaware,  his  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  refused  to  obey  the  President's  order  of 
removal,  and  was  retired  from  the  Cabinet.  Wil- 
liam J.  Duane,  of  Pennsylvania,  appointed  by  Jack- 
son to  succeed  McLane,  proved  as  intractable  as  his 
predecessor.  Duane  was  removed,  in  turn;  and 
Roger  B.  Taney,  of  Maryland,  whose  name  is  linked 
in  history  with  his  removal  of  the  deposits  while 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  with  the  decision  of 
14 


210    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  Dred  Scott  case,  while  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States,  carried  out  Jackson's  order  with  relentless 
courage.  The  removal  was  not  a  physical  deporta- 
tion of  government  moneys  from  the  coffers  of  the 
Bank,  for  no  funds  then  in  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  belonging  to  the  government  were  really  re- 
moved. The  famous  "removal  of  the  deposits"  con- 
sisted in  the  official  order  for  the  future  deposit  of 
all  incoming  revenues  in  various  designated  State 
banks,  which  soon  obtained  the  political  appellation 
of  "Jackson's  pet  banks." 

The  23d  Congress  met  in  its  first  session  on  the 
2d  of  December,  1833,  and  the  President  sent  in  his 
message,  together  with  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  defending  the  removal  of  the  deposits. 
The  Whigs  in  the  Senate,  comprising  the  National 
Republican  Senators  and  those  of  the  Calhoun  State- 
Rights  Democracy,  constituted  a  majority.  Mr. 
Clay  introduced  resolutions  condemning  this  execu- 
tive action  in  relation  to  the  government  funds,  and 
a  debate  ensued  which  lasted  three  months.  The 
resolutions  of  censure  were  adopted;  and  Jackson 
responded  with  a  protest,  charging  that  the  Senate 
had  in  effect  impeached  him,  without  giving  him  an 
opportunity  to  defend  himself.  Benton,  of  Missouri, 
offered  a  resolution  to  "expunge"  the  resolutions  of 
censure  from  the  Senate  Journal;  and  around  this 
inflaming  subject  raged  for  a  long  time  the  struggle 
between  the  President  and  the  opposition.  The  war- 
fare finally  culminated  in  the  triumph  of  Jackson, 
and  the  expunging  from  the  Journal  of  the  resolu- 
tions of  censure  by  the  adoption  of  Benton's  famous 
expunging  resolution. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  the  situation  was 
different.  There  the  Jacksonian  Democracy  had  in- 
dicated by  a  strong  majority  its  adhesion  to  the  Presi- 
dent by  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Stevenson,  an  ardent 
supporter  of  the  Administration,  to  the  'office  of 
Speaker.  Gordon  had  voted  in  1832  against  re- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     211 

chartering  the  Bank,  and  he  had  supported  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Delegates  a  resolution  declaring 
it  to  be  the  opinion  of  that  body  that  the  law  of  Con- 
gress establishing  the  Bank  was  not  authorized  by 
the  Constitution.  But  he  believed  none  the  less  that 
Jackson,  in  removing  the  deposits,  had,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  resolutions  of  censure,  "assumed  upon 
himself  authority  and  power  not  conferred  by  the 
Constitution  and  laws,  but  in  derogation  of  both." 
He  was  supported  in  his  position  by  political  opinion 
at  home,  for  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia 
adopted  resolutions  condemning  the  removal  of  the 
deposits;  and  he  was  selected  as  the  vehicle  of  their 
presentation  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  How 
divergent,  however,  the  views  of  individual  Demo- 
crats might  be,  and  what  dissensions  were  created  in 
the  party  by  the  President's  policies  and  measures, 
are  perhaps  nowhere  better  illustrated  than  in  the 
case  of  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  who,  then  in  the 
sere  and  yellow  leaf,  had  written  to  Mark  Alexander 
in  the  June  preceding  the  removal  of  the  deposits, 
and  apparently  with  a  willingness  to  go  to  any  ex- 
treme with  Jackson  in  his  war  on  the  Bank: 

"I  write  to  entreat  you  to  tell  Warren  R.  Davis 
and  his  colleagues  that  if,  by  their  votes,  the  United 
States  Bank  Bill  shall  pass  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, they  will  receive  the  curses  loud  and  deep  of 
every  old-school  Republican  of  the  South." 

Yet  when  the  fight  was  well  on  between  Jackson 
and  Calhoun  over  Nullification,  Randolph  sided  with 
the  South  Carolinian,  and  denounced  the  President 
as  a  "Djezzar  Pacha,"  and  his  proclamation  as  a 
"ferocious  and  blood-thirsty"  document. 

On  March  3,  1834,  Gordon  presented  to  the 
House  the  Virginia  resolutions.  They  were  as  fol- 
lows : 


212     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"Whereas  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  deem 
it  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  power  to  con- 
trol the  public  revenue  should  be  made  to  abide  in 
practice,  where  it  has  been  vested  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, in  the  immediate  representatives  of  the  people, 
and  of  the  States,  in  Congress  assembled;  and  all  ex- 
perience of  the  practical  operations  of  governments 
has  proved  that  arbitrary  assumptions  of  power  by 
them,  or  any  officer  of  them,  if  silently  acquiesced  in, 
become  precedents  for  further  and  still  greater  acts 
of  usurpation ;  therefore 

"i.  Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly,  That  the 
recent  act  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  ex- 
erting a  control  over  the  public  deposits,  by  causing 
them  to  be  withheld  and  withdrawn,  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility, from  the  United  States  Bank,  in  which 
they  had  been  ordered  to  be  placed  by  the  act  of  Con- 
gress chartering  the  said  Bank,  is  in  the  judgment 
of  the  General  Assembly  a  dangerous  and  alarming 
assumption  of  power  by  that  officer,  which  cannot  be 
too  strongly  condemned. 

"2.  Resolved,  That  while  the  General  Assembly 
will  ever  be  ready  to  sustain  the  President  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  all  such  powers  as  the  Constitution  has  con- 
fided to  him,  they,  nevertheless,  cannot  but  regard 
with  apprehension  and  distrust,  the  disposition  to 
extend  his  official  authority  beyond  its  just  and 
proper  limits,  which  he  has  so  clearly  manifested  in 
his  recent  interference  with  the  Treasury  Department 
of  the  Federal  Government,  in  the  exercise  of  a  sound 
discretion,  which  Congress  had  confided  to  the  head 
of  that  Department  alone. 

"3.  Resolved,  That  our  Senators  in  Congress  be 
instructed,  and  our  Representatives  requested,  to  use 
their  best  exertions  to  procure  the  adoption  by  Con- 
gress of  proper  measures  for  restoring  the  public 
moneys  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States;  or,  at 
least,  for  causing  them  to  be  deposited  therein  for  the 
future,  according  to  the  direction  and  stipulation  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     213 

the  act  of  Congress  chartering  the  said  bank;  if,  at 
the  time  of  their  action  on  the  subject,  the  said  bank 
be,  in  their  opinion,  a  safe  depository  of  the  public 
treasure. 

"4.  Resolved,  That  the  General  Assembly  cannot 
recognize  as  constitutional  the  power  which  has  been 
claimed  by  Congress  to  establish  a  United  States 
Bank,  because,  in  the  opinion  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, as  they  have  heretofore  solemnly  declared, 
that  power  is  not  given  to  Congress  by  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

''5.  Resolved,  That  the  General  Assembly  do  not 
intend,  by  the  declaration  of  their  opinion  in  regard 
to  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  to  qualify,  or  in  any  manner  to  impair,  the 
force  of  their  disapprobation  of  the  withholding  and 
withdrawing  of  the  public  deposits. 

"6.  Resolved,  That  the  Governor  of  the  Com- 
monwealth be  requested  to  transmit  a  copy  of  these 
resolutions  to  each  of  our  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States." 

Gordon  supported  the  presentation  of  these  reso- 
lutions by  a  characteristic  speech,  which  embodied 
the  attitude  of  the  strict  constructionists. 

''in  offering  these  resolutions,"  says  the  official 
report,  "Mr.  Gordon  said  he  rose  for  the  purpose  of 
presenting  to  the  House  resolutions  passed  by  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia 
on  the  subject  of  the  removal  of  the  public  treasure 
from  its  deposit  in  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
where  it  had  been  placed  by  law.  The  General  As- 
sembly of  Virginia  have  been  deeply  impressed  with 
the  importace  of  the  principles  involved  in  this  ques- 
tion; and,  after  the  most  deliberate  consideration, 
have  come  to  resolutions  condemning  the  course  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  instructing  their 
Senators,  and  requesting  the  Representatives  from 
the  State  of  Virginia  to  use  their  efforts  to  restore 


2i4    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  deposits  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The 
General  Assembly  have  considered  this  as  a  question 
of  liberty,  in  which  the  principles  of  a  limited  con- 
stitution have  been  violated  by  the  practice  of  the 
Chief  Magistrate,  in  assuming  authority  properly  to 
be  exercised  by  other  departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  and  the 
people  of  Virginia  have  heretofore  yielded  to  no  por- 
tion of  this  Confederacy  in  respect  and  affection  for 
the  present  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  United  States; 
but  the  General  Assembly  and  the  people  standing 
on  their  long-cherished  and  oft-defended  ground  of 
constitutional  construction,  and  their  own  estimation 
of  the  principles  and  practices  of  government,  best 
calculated  to  secure  the  blessings  of  freedom,  have 
spoken  on  this  occasion  in  a  language  not  to  be  mis- 
understood. The  General  Assembly  consider  the  re- 
moval of  the  deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  in  the  manner  it  has  been  effected,  on  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  President,  as  'a  dangerous  and 
alarming  assumption  of  authority,'  tending  to  con- 
centrate in  that  officer  all  the  powers  of  government. 
The  legislative  functions  of  Congress,  and  the  judi- 
cial authority  of  the  courts,  have  both  been  invaded. 
The  province  of  the  courts,  patiently  to  examine  and 
correctly  to  ascertain  facts  by  the  consecrated  trial  by 
jury,  has  been  utterly  disregarded;  and  the  Chief 
Executive  officer  of  this  Government,  although  di- 
rected by  law,  if  he  deemed  there  had  been  an  infrac- 
tion of  the  bank  charter,  to  direct  a  scire  facias  to 
issue,  in  otrder  to  a  trial  by  a  court  and  jury,  has  him- 
self adjudged  the  questions,  on  ex  parte  testimony, 
and  determined  that  the  bank  has  forfeited  its  char- 
ter; thus  in  his  own  person  deciding  the  question  of 
the  violation  of  the  charter,  involving  high  penalties 
on  the  part  of  the  bank,  without  sending  it  for  adjudi- 
cation to  the  tribunals  marked  out  by  the  Constitu- 
tion and  laws.  The  first  clause  of  the  Constitution 
declares,  that  'all  legislative  powers,  herein  granted, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     215 

shall  be  vested  in  a  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
which  shall  consist  of  a  Senate,  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives.' This  legislative  power  had  vested  in  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  an  important  discretion,  to 
remove  the  deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  The  President,  consulting  with  his  then  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  found  that  the  Secretary  did 
not  think  there  was  any  good  cause  for  the  removal 
of  the  deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States; 
and,  notwithstanding  a  divided  cabinet  on  the  sub- 
ject, dismissed  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  from 
office,  and  replaced  him  by  one  whose  opinions  were 
known  to  concur  with  his  will  on  this  subject;  thus 
abusing  his  power  of  removal,  and  interfering  in- 
juriously with  that  discretion  which  the  law  had  con- 
fided to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  By  these  as- 
sumptions and  indirections,  the  President  has  done 
what  he  had  no  power  to  do  directly,  under  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  country. 

"There  is  not  a  man  in  America  who  will  not  deny 
to  the  President  the  power  directly  to  control  the 
public  revenue  unless  he  derives  his  authority  from 
appropriations  made  by  law. 

"We,  the  representatives  of  the  people,  hold  in  our 
hands  the  purse-strings  of  the  people's  money;  and 
fatal  to  their  rights,  and  interests,  and  freedom, — 
most  fatal, — will  it  be  whenever  they  are  surrendered 
into  the  hands  of  any  Executive  Magistrate.  He  has 
no  direct  authority  either  to  raise,  appropriate,  or  in 
any  manner  to  dispose  of,  or  use,  the  public  revenue. 

"The  General  Assembly  do  not  deny,  nor  did  he 
(Mr.  Gordon)  the  power  of  the  President,  under  the 
law,  to  remove  from  office  any  unworthy  officer;  but 
they  do  deny  to  the  President  the  right  to  remove  a 
faithful  officer,  to  effect  that  which  he  had  no  right- 
ful authority  to  effect  in  any  way.  This  abuse  of  the 
power  of  removal,  and  assumption  of  power  over 
the  treasure  of  the  country,  was  a  dangerous  enlarge- 
ment of  the  power  and  patronage  of  the  President, 


216    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

already  endangering  the  purity  and  independence  of 
the  other  departments  of  the  government,  and  calcu- 
lated to  enable  the  Executive  Magistrate  successfully 
to  appeal  to  the  worst  passions  of  his  partisans,  in- 
stead of  establishing  a  reliance  on  the  purity  and  wis- 
dom of  his  administration. 

"The  patronage  of  this  government,  wielded  by 
one  man,  with  the  power  of  putting  in  and  putting 
out  at  his  will  and  pleasure  some  forty  thousand  offi- 
cers and  agents,  great  and  small,  to  whom  the  im- 
mense revenues  of  this  country  are  distributed,  is  a 
power,  in  his  (Mr.  Gordon's)  view,  utterly  incon- 
sistent with  the  genius  of  a  free  constitution. 

"Men  are  not  angels.  'Lead  us  not  into  tempta- 
tion' was  the  wise  and  meek  prayer  taught  by  the 
Redeemer  to  fallen  man.  Human  virtue  is  too  frail 
to  withstand  the  temptations  and  influence  which  an 
ambitious  and  reckless  Chief  Magistrate  might 
wield;  and  the  Executive  Department  of  the  Govern- 
ment, absorbing  all  the  vital  and  essential  powers  of 
the  other  departments,  would  reduce  us,  in  fact,  with 
the  forms  of  a  free  constitution,  in  effect,  to  a  simple 
monarchy. 

"There  is  already  a  fearful  proclivity  of  power 
towards  the  Executive  Magistrate;  and  if  a  construc- 
tion be  given  to  the  Constitution  by  which  the  Presi- 
dent would  have  the  power  to  appoint  and  displace, 
at  his  mere  will,  or  under  the  pretext  of  seeing  that 
the  laws  were  faithfully  executed,  I  should  feel  that 
the  power  given  to  the  Legislative  Department  of 
the  Government  was  absorbed  in  the  pretended  exe- 
cution of  the  laws,  and  the  representatives  of  the 
people  had  as  well  hence  to  their  idle  homes.  He 
(Mr.  Gordon)  did  not  admit  that  the  power  of  re- 
moval gave  a  right  to  the  President  to  control  all  the 
functionaries  of  their  government  in  the  estimate 
which  they  might  make  of  their  duties  under  the  law ; 
nor  did  a  faithful  execution  of  the  law  mean  in  all 
cases  that  there  should  be  a  wise  administration  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     217 

the  law.  A  judge  may  make  a  faithful  execution  of 
his  office,  and  so  may  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
without  carrying  any  great  degree  of  wisdom  into 
their  administrations.  Indeed,  with  a  few  illustrious 
exceptions,  if  a  contrary  doctrine  is  to  prevail,  the 
officers  of  all  our  governments,  State  and  Federal, 
might  tremble  for  their  places.  Would  a  judge  be 
dismissed  who  gave  an  erroneous  but  conscientious 
judgment?  Would  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  two- 
thirds  of  which  have  a  right  to  remove  a  judge,  exer- 
cise that  high  power  because  he  had  pronounced  a 
judgment  at  variance  with  their  own?  If  this  new 
version  of  the  President's  power  be  admitted,  then, 
indeed,  he  may  be  considered  as  holding  in  his  hand, 
and  exhibiting  to  the  people  and  functionaries  of  the 
government,  a  golden  ladder  of  preferment,  with 
forty  thousand  rounds,  to  which  so  many  climbers  up 
are  perpetually  turning  their  anxious  and  longing 
eyes,  the  elevation  or  disgrace  of  each  depending  on 
the  will  of  the  President,  from  the  minister  who 
represents  this  great  confederacy  in  foreign  courts, 
down  to  the  most  inconsiderable  postmaster.  With 
such  an  appeal  to  the  hopes  and  fears  and  interests 
of  our  citizens,  used  to  effect  any  purpose  on  which 
the  President  is  intent,  all  opposition  in  the  nature  of 
things  must  be  fruitless,  unless  the  people  can  be 
aroused  to  redeem  their  institutions  from  the  exer- 
cise of  a  power  inconsistent  with  their  freedom  and 
peace.  The  power  of  appointment  and  removal,  even 
when  most  discreetly  and  forbearingly  used,  is  a  fear- 
ful discretion  to  confide  to  any  one  man. 

"Mr.  Gordon  said  he  did  not  himself  believe  the 
President  of  the  United  States  had  an  intention  to 
usurp  the  liberties  of  his  country,  but  he  did  believe 
his  present  course  of  action  would  be  recorded  as  a 
monument,  and  some  future  man  of  ambition  might 
become,  by  his  example,  master  of  the  Confederacy. 

"The  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  have  con- 
sidered it  as  a  question  involving  the  separation  of 


218     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  powers  of  a  free  constitution,  and  not  as  a  ques- 
tion of  bank  or  no  bank. 

"The  Constitution  of  Virginia  contains  a  pro- 
vision, that  the  Executive,  Legislative  and  Judicial 
Departments  of  government  should  be  kept  separate 
and  distinct,  so  that  neither  should  exercise  the  powers 
properly  appertaining  to  the  other.  In  the  Federal 
Constitution  the  demarcations  of  the  several  depart- 
ments are  distinctly  made.  The  Legislative,  Execu- 
tive and  Judicial  powers  are  assigned  to  their  appro- 
priate organs. 

"The  Legislative  power  is  vested  in  Congress — 
there  was  none  given  to  the  President.  He  is  not  a 
representative  of  the  people — he  is  the  Executive 
officer,  appointed  by  the  people.  His  power  of  veto 
is  not  a  legislative  power — it  ought  to  be,  as  it  is,  a 
mere  negative.  No  money  shall  be  drawn  from  the 
Treasury,  without  an  appropriation  by  law,  and  the 
question  was  submitted  to  the  House,  as  the  guardian 
of  the  Treasury,  if  large  sums  of  the  public  money 
have  not  been  withdrawn  from  the  bank  without  an 
appropriation  made  by  law?  It  seemed  to  be  con- 
tended by  those  who  justify  the  course  of  the  Presi- 
dent, that  he  and  the  officers  under  him  had  the  right 
to  use  the  money  of  the  people  as  they  pleased  in  the 
interval  between  the  time  of  its  collection  and  the 
time  of  its  appropriation.  That  they  can  place  it 
where  they  will,  and  loan  or  deposit  it  to  whom  they 
will;  and  contract  what  those  receiving  it  shall  do  in 
return.  Let  us  put  this  to  the  test  of  ordinary  trans- 
actions in  private  life; — an  agent  has  power  to  col- 
lect money  for  his  principal ;  does  it  therefore  follow 
that  he  has  the  power  to  use  it  for  his  own  purposes, 
lend  it  out,  make  contracts  on  it?  Has  he  any  other 
power  than  to  collect  and  keep  it,  and  pay  it  over  to 
his  principal  as  soon  as  possible?  Try  the  President 
by  this  simple  test,  and  it  will  be  found  he  has  used 
millions  of  the  public  treasure  in  a  manner  not  sanc- 
tioned by  the  authority  under  which  he  acts.  The 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     219 

public  revenue  on  deposit,  I  suppose,  usually  amounts 
to  between  seven  and  eight  millions  of  dollars,  and 
the  fair  interest  for  its  use  is  worth  nearly  half  a 
million  dollars  annually.  Can  any  one  be  so  blind 
as  not  to  see  the  influence  and  power  which  such  a 
use  of  the  revenues  of  the  country  must  add  to  the 
already  too  extensive  patronage  of  the  President?  Is 
it  deemed  that  the  President,  or  those  who  surround 
him,  have  a  right  to  remove  the  revenue  from  the 
places  appointed  by  law,  except  in  a  manner  pre- 
scribed by  law?  In  this  whole  matter  the  President 
had  no  direct  authority  to  act. 

"Mr.  Gordon  said  there  was  another  great  prin- 
ciple of  freedom  invaded,  which  he  never  would  sur- 
render. He  claimed  as  a  freeman,  as  a  citizen  of 
Virginia,  one  of  the  members  of  this  great  confeder- 
ated Union,  either  by  himself,  or  his  representative, 
to  tax  himself.  It  was  a  great  principle  of  English 
liberty,  that  taxes  were  the  free  gift  and  grant  of  the 
Commons;  and  he  believed  if  the  King  of  England 
should  at  any  time  invade  or  impair  this  right,  he 
would  hear  from  his  indignant  subjects  that  no  more 
taxes  would  be  paid  until  there  was  a  reform.  He 
insisted  that  as  Congress  only  could  raise  revenue,  so 
also  could  they  alone  direct  everything  appertaining 
to  the  revenue,  both  as  to  its  preservation  and  distri- 
bution. 

"Mr.  Gordon  said  he  claimed,  as  a  representative 
of  the  people,  of  those  who  gave  him  public  leave  to 
speak  in  their  behalf,  to  act  as  sentinel  over  the 
public  treasure — a  post  he  would  never  yield,  so  long 
as  he  was  worthy  to  speak  in  the  name  of  those  who 
sent  him.  He  greatly  regretted, — he  considered  it 
one  of  the  evil  omens  of  the  times,  and  high  as  was 
his  respect  for  the  distinguished  body  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  he  could  not  but  deeply  lament,  that 
on  such  a  question, — on  a  question  of  taxation,  of 
liberty, — a  majority  of  the  immediate  representatives 
of  the  people  are  seen  rallying  to  the  side  of  power. 


220    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

He  was  deeply  mortified  that  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  had  not,  unanimously,  instantly  re- 
proved this  perversion  of  Executive  authority;  and 
although  he  had  not  intention  to  make  any  illiberal 
imputation  on  the  members  of  Congress,  who  were, 
he  doubted  not,  as  honorable,  as  a  body,  as  could 
anywhere  be  found,  yet  he  would  say  that  if  the 
people  of  the  country  sustained  their  representatives 
in  yielding  to  this  overwhelming  Executive  power, 
he  should  consider  that  the  liberties  attempted  to  be 
secured  by  this  constitution  were  gone  forever. 

"Mr.  Gordon  said  the  occasion  was  a  fit  one  to 
take  a  rapid  glance  at  the  past  course  of  the  ancient 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia  in  relation  to  this  Gov- 
ernment. She  had  ever  contended  for  a  strict  con- 
struction and  faithful  execution  of  the  limited, 
though  extensive,  powers  delegated  by  the  compact 
to  Federal  functionaries.  Jealous  of  power  every- 
where,— diffusing  and  limiting  it  in  her  own  gov- 
ernment, she  has  looked  always  with  apprehension  on 
its  too  great  accumulation  in  any  of  the  departments 
of  this  Government.  Her  warning  voice  has  often 
been  heard  on  this  floor  in  reproof  of  undelegated 
authority  in  the  legislative  department  of  Govern- 
ment. During  the  administration  immediately  pre- 
ceding this,  she  thought  she  perceived,  in  the  asser- 
tion of  powers  in  this  Government  by  the  then  Chief 
Magistrate,  an  alarming  tendency  to  consolidation 
of  all  the  powers  of  the  States  in  this  Federal  head; 
and  although  these  assertions  of  authority  were  not 
carried  out  into  action,  she  rallied  in  opposition  to 
their  bare  assertion,  and  gave  her  support  to  the 
present  Chief  Magistrate,  under  the  confident  hope 
that  he  would  administer  the  Government  in  a  spirit 
of  moderation,  according  to  the  Constitution,  and 
bear  himself  with  a  meekness  and  simplicity  in  his 
high  office,  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions, 
and  thus  adorning  the  high  military  reputation  by 
which  he  had  attracted  the  admiration  of  his  coun- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     221 

trymen.  By  her  powerful  aid  the  present  Chief 
Magistrate  was  elected;  and  for  the  first  years  of 
his  administration  she  stood  almost  in  solid  phalanx 
supporting  all  his  great  measures. 

"But  it  has  been  with  a  feeling  of  deep  mortifica- 
tion that  she  perceived,  after  the  second  election  of 
the  present  Chief  Magistrate,  in  which  she  so  heartily 
cooperated,  a  disposition  to  enlarge  his  authority, 
and  to  administer  the  powers  conferred  on  him  in  a 
harsh  and  overstrained  manner. 

"Those  of  us  who  stood  here  last  year  well  re- 
member the  universal  satisfaction  which  the  message 
of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  at  the  opening  of  the  session, 
diffused  over  the  entire  south.  It  conformed,  more 
than  almost  any  paper  ever  sent  to  this  House,  with 
the  feeling  of  moderation  and  principles  of  govern- 
ment always  cherished  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Vir- 
ginia. In  some  of  its  recommendations  it  recognized 
the  principles  of  the  nullification  of  South  Carolina, 
the  ultima  thule  of  State-Rights.  It  was  calculated 
to  destroy  nullification  itself,  by  curing  all  those  evils 
for  which  its  advocates  contended  it  was  the  rightful 
remedy. 

"But  what  are  mortal  hopes?  The  smoothness 
produced  in  our  affairs  by  this  message  in  six  short 
days  was  ruffled  by  the  storm  engendered  by  that 
fatal  proclamation,  so  hateful  to  all  lovers  of  a  free 
confederacy  of  the  States;  denouncing  as  traitors 
those  who  professed  and  paid  allegiance  to  the  laws 
of  the  State  that  gave  them  birth  when  in  contact 
with  the  federal  authority, — and  that  proclamation 
followed  up  by  a  special  and  argumentative  message, 
claiming  for  this  Government  of  delegated  and 
limited  authority  unlimited  power  over  the  States,  as 
parties  delegating  that  authority — and  this  message, 
sustained  and  ratified  by  the  legislative  department, 
by  a  grant  of  the  whole  military  and  naval  and  fiscal 
power  of  the  Government,  to  prostrate  a  gallant  and 
talented  State  of  this  Confederacy,  who  had  dared  to 


222     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

stand  for  the  restoration  of  long-lost  rights,  and  re- 
monstrate against  unconstitutional  taxation.  When 
we  saw  a  majority  of  this  House  and  the  other  voting 
that  declaration  of  war  against  all  the  States,  which 
throws  the  sword  before  the  judgment  of  the 
courts,  and  subjects  this  once  free  confederacy  to 
martial  law  at  the  will  of  the  President  and  his  col- 
lectors, the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  whose  con- 
stitution consecrates  the  trial  by  jury,  by  declaring 
that  it  should  be  held  sacred — when  we  saw  and  felt 
these  things,  it  was  impossible  not  to  recoil  from 
them;  and  now,  after  having  compromised  and  for 
a  time  settled  the  conflicts  of  interest  and  opinion 
which  gave  rise  to  these  hateful  measures,  and  after 
the  country  had  become  in  a  great  degree  composed 
and  at  peace,  the  President  of  the  United  States  in 
the  wantonness  of  power  has  struck  a  blow  on  the 
financial  affairs  of  this  country,  the  fearful  vibrations 
of  which  are  heard  and  felt  to  the  extremities  of  the 
Confederacy.  He  had  given  the  death-blow  to  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  by  his  veto ;  it  would  have 
died,  it  must  have  died,  because  the  President's  tenure 
of  office  was  longer  than  that  of  the  charter  of  the 
Bank.  But  the  President,  sixty  days  before  the  meet- 
ing of  Congress,  without  any  public  necessity,  had 
done  a  deed  of  fearful  note.  In  a  community  of  five 
hundred  banks,  with  a  paper  circulation  interwoven 
with  every  interest  of  society  and  affording  the  actual 
currency  of  the  whole  Confederacy;  carrying  on  all 
the  exchanges,  foreign  and  domestic,  of  this  great 
continent  of  States;  ministering  to  the  commercial, 
manufacturing  and  agricultural  industry  and  enter- 
prise of  the  country — over  the  varied  and  compli- 
cated strings  of  such  an  instrument  he  has  thrown  his 
gigantic  but  unskillful  hands;  and  the  dissonant  and 
jarring  sounds  which  he  has  produced  return  upon 
his  ear,  and  discompose  the  nerves  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. 

"These   resolutions  of  the  General  Assembly  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     223 

Virginia  deny  to  Congress  the  constitutional  power 
to  make  a  Bank  of  the  United  States;  in  which  he 
(Mr.  Gordon)  entirely  concurred.  For  on  a  former 
occasion  he  had  voted  against  rechartering  the  bank; 
and  at  the  last  session  he  had  voted  against  the  reso- 
lution in  reference  to  the  safety  of  the  deposits  in  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States, — not  because  he  consid- 
ered them  unsafe,  but  because  he  had  no  opportunity 
from  the  late  period  of  the  session  to  examine  the 
subject;  and  he  feared  the  resolution  would  aid  the 
Bank  in  a  future  effort  for  a  charter.  On  his  part 
that  was  a  mere  negative  vote.  He  felt  that  on  pre- 
senting these  resolutions  and  delivering  his  own 
vriews  of  the  powers  of  this  government,  he  was  per- 
forming no  very  acceptable  service  to  any  large  party 
in  this  House.  He  believed  the  question  of  bank  or 
no  bank  must  arise  before  the  session  terminates; 
and  when  it  does,  he  would  be  found  standing  by  his 
native  State,  on  the  narrow  isthmus  which  she  occu- 
pied, in  strenuous  though  unavailing  efforts  to  roll 
back  the  waves  of  legislative  or  executive  encroach- 
ment on  the  Constitution  and  liberties  of  his  country. 
But  whilst  he  believed  that  Congress  had  no  constitu- 
tional power  to  incorporate  a  bank,  it  should  not  and 
does  not  mitigate  the  conduct  of  the  President  for  an 
unconstitutional  violation  of  its  chartered  and  vested 
rights.  He  confessed  that  the  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices of  the  Chief  Magistrate  had  greatly  alarmed 
his  mind;  he  believed  if  the  President  had  properly 
construed  his  right  of  removal,  and  that  by  its  exer- 
cise he  could  control  all  the  officers  of  Government 
in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  under  the  law,  and 
that  a  difference  of  opinion  with  him  is  a  just  cause 
of  removal  from  office,  all  the  other  departments  of 
the  Government  must  fade  away  under  the  gigantic 
powers  given  to  the  President,  and  the  people  awake 
from  their  dream  of  liberty  to  find  that,  instead  of 
an  association  of  free  and  confederate  States,  they 
had  in  fact  erected  a  despotism,  whose  horrid  features 


224     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

had  not  been  visible  until  the  veil  was  withdrawn  by 
the  President. 

"But  it  cannot  be.  The  power  of  removal  does 
not  rightfully  imply  a  power  of  control  and  direc- 
tion; otherwise  the  President  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses would  be  the  Government,  and  there  is  no 
effective  limit  to  his  authority  either  under  the  law  or 
the  Constitution.  He  (Mr.  Gordon)  knew  that  the 
advocates  of  power  were  never  at  a  loss  for  prece- 
dents; they  are  an  inclined  plane  down  which  every 
government  has  slid  into  despotism, — and  it  was  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  inquire  whether  this  power  of 
removal  was  a  power  conferred  by  the  Constitution, 
or  implied,  and  given  by  the  legislative  department, — 
and  in  either  case  to  curb  and  keep  it  within  strict 
limits.  Mr.  Gordon  trusted  that  good  would  arise 
out  of  evil;  that  this  rash  and  inconsiderate  conduct 
on  the  part  of  the  President  would  ultimately  tend  to 
place  the  Government  on  surer  and  safer  founda- 
tions;— and  that  when  it  was  found  in  practice  that 
there  had  been  an  unequal  share  in  the  distribution  of 
the  powers  of  this  Government,  given  to  or  assumed 
by  the  President,  those  for  whom  the  Government 
was  established  would  in  either  case  apply  the 
remedy.  Mr.  Gordon  said  that,  in  regard  to  the 
present  expediency  and  wisdom  of  the  course  of  the 
Administration,  there  would  amongst  all  those  who 
would  extend  their  view  to  the  whole  circle  of  our 
affairs,  be  but  one  opinion.  In  this  young  and  grow- 
ing country,  comprehending  a  territory  as  large  as 
Europe,  in  rapid  career  of  advancement,  deficient  in 
nothing  but  capital  and  labor — and  the  efforts  to  in- 
crease both  had  eventuated  in  giving  to  the  United 
States  that  most  extended  system  of  banks  and  paper 
circulation,  said  to  amount  to  five  hundred  banks  and 
nearly  one  hundred  millions  of  paper  circulation, — 
the  credit  of  these  banks  and  this  currency,  dependent 
entirely  upon  public  confidence,  was  as  delicate  as  the 
sensitive  plant,  and  had  shrunk  from  the  rude  touch 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     225 

of  unauthorized  power.  The  President  had  de- 
stroyed the  public  confidence  in  the  public  currency, 
and  the  consequence  was  universal  clamor  and  almost 
universal  despondency. 

"He  said  he  felt  proud  of  the  position  which  the 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia  occupied;  he  trusted 
that  her  continued  efforts  in  the  cause  of  constitu- 
tional liberty  would  redound  to  the  peace  and  honor 
of  the  Confederacy.  Asking  nothing  for  herself,  her 
most  fervent  wish  was  to  see  this  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernment guided  according  to  those  constitutional 
landmarks,  in  the  establishment  of  which  she  had 
had  some  agency;  and,  in  conclusion,  he  trusted  that 
he  might  be  permitted,  without  offence  to  any,  to  say 
that  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  was  happy  in 
the  purity  of  her  own  principles  and  purposes,  suffi- 
ciently rich  in  the  spontaneous  gratitude  which  on  all 
great  occasions  she  had  excited  in  her  sisters  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  glorious  in  being  the  disinterested 
creditor  of  mankind  in  the  large  advances  and  gener- 
ous examples  she  had  made  in  the  cause  of  freedom." 


CHAPTER  XV 

IN  CONGRESS ORIGINATES  THE  INDEPENDENT 

TREASURY 

Gordon's  speech  on  the  Virginia  Resolutions  con- 
demning the  removal  of  the  deposits  had  been  made 
con  amore.  A  month  earlier  he  had  written  to  Mrs. 
Gordon : 

"We  are  still  in  great  excitement  in  Congress. 
When  it  will  subside  I  know  not.  The  Administra- 
tion I  think  is  overthrown.  They  cannot  carry  on 
the  Government." 

But  he  underestimated  the  entrenched  power  and 
ability  of  Jackson.  On  the  i4th  of  April,  1834,  he 
had  grown  despondent,  and  wrote: 

"We  have  no  mitigation  here  of  our  anxiety  for 
the  state  of  the  country.  The  ruinous  course  pursued 
by  the  President  is  developing  every  day  the  folly  of 
the  measure.  Three  banks  in  the  District  within  the 
last  three  or  four  days  have  stopped  payment;  and 
I  very  much  fear  that  most  of  the  State  banks  in  the 
Union  will  have  the  same  fate.  The  ruin  to  indi- 
viduals will  be  appalling." 

He  was  now  well  out  of  any  sort  of  sympathy  with 
the  party  of  the  Jacksonian  Democracy, — a  situation 
to  which  he  refers  in  the  same  letter:  "I  am  getting 
tired  of  this  kind  of  public  life,  though  I  have  no 
apprehension  that  my  kind  constituents  will  discard 
me  for  having  the  sagacity  to  see  their  interest,  and 
firmness  enough  to  pursue  it.  On  the  contrary,  I  have 
no  doubt  that  the  shouts  of  applause  which  so  re- 
cently have  been  raised  in  favor  of  the  advocates  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     227 

power  will  be  turned  into  curses  deep  and  loud.  The 
conduct  of  the  Executive  in  this  matter  is  without  a 
parallel  for  its  folly." 

In  Virginia,  as  throughout  the  Union,  the  removal 
of  the  deposits  had  created  great  excitement.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  set  out  in  detail  in  his 
report  to  Congress  on  December  3,  1833,  the  reasons 
for  issuing  the  order  of  removal;  and  the  debates 
which  ensued  in  both  the  Senate  and  the  House  of 
Representatives,  continuing  for  months,  are  said  to 
have  illustrated  an  ability  and  warmth  never  before 
displayed  in  a  congressional  discussion. 

"The  people  caught  the  excitement,"  says  Mr. 
Hugh  Blair  Grigsby,  in  his  "Discourse  on  Tazewell," 
"and  public  meetings  were  held  in  all  the  commercial 
cities;  and  memorials  were  forwarded  to  Congress 
urging  the  immediate  restoration  of  the  deposits  to 
the  vaults  of  the  bank.  Each  memorial,  as  it  was  re- 
ceived by  a  Senator  or  Representative,  was  honored 
with  a  speech  from  some  master  spirit.  And  now  the 
most  menacing  monetary  crisis  occurred  which  the 
country  had  ever  seen.  In  a  little  less  or  more  than 
six  months  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  short- 
ened its  line  of  discounts  ten  millions  of  dollars;  and 
all  the  State  banks  in  self-defense  were  compelled  to 
follow  the  example  of  that  great  institution.  Confi- 
dence ceased  to  exist.  No  man  in  business  could  look 
ahead  a  single  day  without  fear  and  trembling.  Men 
spoke  in  whispers,  and  walked  doubtfully  as  if  the 
earth  might  quake  beneath  their  feet.  The  result 
was  a  change  in  the  party  relations  of  those  who 
lived  in  towns  without  a  parallel  in  our  history.  And 
it  was  soon  seen  that  a  new  party  was  forming,  in 
comparison  of  which  the  tertium  quid  of  Jefferson's 
administration  was  a  mere  bubble  floating  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  stream.  In  that  tempest  was  rocked  the 
cradle  of  that  large  and  intellectual  party,  which  as- 
sumed the  appellation  of  Whig,  which  won  some 
splendid  victories,  which  encountered  some  decisive 


228     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

defeats,  which  then  slept  awhile,  and  which  has  re- 
cently burnished  its  armor  anew  for  a  fresh  cam- 
paign. (1860.) 

"Richmond  set  the  example  among  us  of  holding 
meetings  of  the  people,  with  a  view  of  urging  the 
restoration  of  the  deposits  to  the  Bank.  Watkins 
Leigh  and  Chapman  Johnson  made  on  that  occasion 
an  appeal  to  the  people  of  Virginia  in  favor  of  a  re- 
storation, which  was  heard  from  so  respectable  a 
source  with  the  attention  it  deserved.  The  Assembly, 
then  in  session,  which  when  elected  had  been  favor- 
able to  the  administration  of  Jackson,  faltered  in 
their  faith,  instructed  the  Senators  in  Congress  to 
vote  for  a  restoration  of  the  deposits,  and  on  the  resig- 
nation of  Mr.  Rives,  who  upheld  the  policy  of  the 
Administration,  elected  Mr.  Leigh  in  his  stead. 
Even  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  its  polar  star  momen- 
tarily obscured,  was  tossing  helplessly  on  that  tem- 
pestuous sea. 

"In  this  state  of  things,  some  of  the  citizens  of 
Norfolk,  of  both  parties,  as  those  parties  had  pre- 
viously stood,  highly  distinguished  by  social  position, 
by  talents,  by  wealth,  and  by  their  intimate  connec- 
tion with  our  banking  institutions,  called  on  Mr. 
Tazewell,  and  requested  him  to  take  the  chair  at  a 
public  meeting  to  be  held  on  the  8th  of  January, 
1834.  He  consented  to  do  so,  and  on  taking  the 
chair  delivered  one  of  the  most  graceful,  most  ner- 
vous, and  most  eloquent  speeches  that  ever  fell  from 
his  lips.  In  language  not  to  be  misunderstood,  he  de- 
nounced the  act  of  removing  the  deposits  from  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  advised  their  immediate 
restoration,  and  condemned  the  whole  series  of  the 
measures  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  in  re- 
lation thereto.  A  gentleman  happening  to  be  present 
who  had  heard  Canning,  Brougham  and  Sir  Robert 
Peel  from  the  hustings  and  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, declared  that  the  speech  of  Mr.  Tazewell  fully 
equalled  their  grandest  efforts  on  such  occasions ;  and 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     229 

all  who  heard  it  pronounced  it  a  wonderful  work  of 
argument,  eloquence,  and  declamation  combined.  A 
few  days  after  the  meeting,  Mr.  Tazewell  was 
elected  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth." 

Upon  the  reassembling  of  the  23d  Congress  in 
December,  1834,  regulations  were  made  to  govern 
the  deposit  of  the  public  moneys  in  the  State  banks. 
The  use  of  the  State  banks  as  depositories  had  begun 
in  October,  1833;  so  that  from  this  date  to  the 
passage  in  1835  °f  tne  acts  regulating  the  govern- 
ment deposits,  the  public  moneys  were  practically 
under  the  complete  control  of  the  President  and  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  selected  these  banks  according  to  his  own 
notion;  and  an  immediate  result  of  the  removal  of 
the  deposits,  and  the  failure  to  re-charter  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  was  the  springing  up  o£  what 
has  been  called  "a  mushroom  crop"  of  local  banks, 
all  eager  to  obtain  the  Government's  patronage  as 
a  basis  for  their  discounts. 

During  the  session  of  1834-35,  Gordon,  moved  by 
the  uncertainty  of  the  Government's  financial  de- 
positories, and  seeking,  with  what  Mr.  Calhoun  in 
private  conversation  said  was  "the  inspiration  of 
genius  in  statesmanship,"  to  have  the  government  keep 
its  own  moneys  in  its  own  control  and  subject  to  its 
own  purposes,  through  its  public  officials,  and  thus 
to  separate  the  public  business  of  the  government 
revenues  from  the  private  business  of  the  money- 
market,  devised  and  proposed  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  the  scheme  of  the  Independent  Treas- 
ury, or  Sub-Treasury  System, — a  financial  plan  of 
government  which  gave  to  its  author,  after  its  later 
adoption,  the  soubriquet  of  "Sub-Treasury  Gordon." 

The  measure  was  one  of  much  simplicity,  as  are 
most  of  the  great  measures  of  governmental  policy 
or  of  social  life.  The  effect  of  it  was  to  separate  the 
fiscal  concerns  of  government  from  those  of  the  pri- 
vate banking  corporations  of  the  country,  on  the 


23o    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

theory  that  Congress  should  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  money-market,  except  to  see  that  the  makers  of 
a  credit  currency  shall  redeem  their  promises  in  coin 
or  go  out  of  business.  Gordon  believed  that  this  was 
the  duty  of  the  Government,  and  that  there  its  duty 
ended. 

Gordon's  Sub-Treasury  Bill  provided  that  the 
revenues  of  the  Government  should  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  collecting  officers,  or  assistant  treas- 
urers, throughout  the  country,  to  be  disbursed,  trans- 
ferred and  accounted  for  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  The  fidelity  of  the  Government's  agents 
was  to  be  secured  by  bonds. 

Of  its  successful  operation  when  finally  adopted, 
and  after  a  brief  trial,  Alexander  Johnston,  one  of 
the  fairest  and  most  judicial  historians  of  this  coun- 
try, has  said: 

"It  inflicted  no  damage  upon  the  State  banks,  or 
upon  business  at  large;  it  did  not  increase  the  num- 
ber of  offices  at  the  disposal  of  the  President  and  his 
party,  or  the  power  of  the  President  over  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  country;  it  laid  no  'corner- 
stone of  despotism' ;  its  practical  operation  was  much 
more  smooth  and  successful  than  might  have  been 
anticipated  in  a  civil  service  already  so  far  debased; 
and  it  plainly  relieved  the  Government  from  any  ex- 
cept indirect  and  remote  consequences  of  suspension 
of  specie  payments  by  the  banks,  and  the  country 
from  the  difficulties  and  dangers  incident  to  the  con- 
trol of  a  national  bank  by  a  representative  body.  Its 
passage  opened  a  hitherto  unthought  of  door  of 
escape  from  a  national  bank  so  inviting  that  it  would 
have  been  foolish  for  the  dominant  party  not  to  have 
availed  itself  of  it,  and  so  convenient  when  tried,  that 
it  would  have  been  impossible  on  a  fair  test  to  induce 
the  country  to  retrace  its  steps.  Only  the  momentum 
of  the  Whig  party  proper,  acquired  by  years  of 
struggle  for  a  national  bank,  compelled  its  leaders  to 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     231 

keep  up  for  a  time  a  contest  whose  futility  they  were 
quick  to  perceive.  The  first  successful  execution  of 
the  Independent  Treasury  act  made  a  national  bank 
an  impossibility  with  general  popular  consent,  and 
completed  the  divorce  of  bank  and  state." 

On  the  2Oth  day  of  June,  1834,  Gordon  addressed 
the  House  of  Representatives  upon  his  bill  to  estab- 
lish an  Independent  Treasury.  The  proposition 
came  up  upon  the  motion  made  by  him  to  amend  the 
Local  Bank  Deposit  Regulation  Bill,  then  before  the 
House,  by  striking  out  all  of  the  said  bill  after  the 
enacting  clause,  and  inserting  the  following: 

"i.  That  from  and  after  the day  of 

in  the  year ,  the  collectors  of  the  public  reve- 
nue at  places  where  the  sums  collected  shall  not  ex- 
ceed the  sum  of dollars  per  annum,  shall  be  the 

agents  of  the  Treasurer  to  keep  and  disburse  the  same, 
and  be  subject  to  such  rules  and  regulations  and  give 
such  bond  and  security  as  he  shall  prescribe  for  the 
faithful  execution  of  their  office;  and  shall  receive, 
in  addition  to  the  compensation  now  allowed  by 

law per  centum  on  the  sums  disbursed ;  so  that 

it   does   not   exceed   the   sum   of dollars   per 

annum. 

"2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  at  all  places 
where  the  amount  of  public  revenue  collected  shall 
exceed  the  sum  of ......  dollars  per  annum,   there 

shall  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  receivers  of  the 
public  revenue,  to  be  agents  of  the  Treasurer,  who 
shall  give  such  bond  and  security  to  keep  and  dis- 
burse the  public  revenue,  and  be  subject  to  such  rules 
and  regulations  as  the  Treasurer  shall  prescribe,  and 

shall  receive  for  their  services per  centum  per 

annum  on  the  sum  disbursed:  provided  it  does  not 
exceed  the  sum  of dollars  per  annum. 

"3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  from  and 
after  the day  of the  whole  revenue  of 


232     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  United  States,  derived  from  the  customs,  of  lands, 
or  other  sources,  shall  be  paid  in  the  current  coins  of 
the  United  States." 

In  Benton's  "Abridged  Debates  o£  Congress"  the 
author  of  the  proposed  amendment  is  reported  as 
having  spoken  as  follows : 

"Mr.  Gordon  said  that  it  was  due  to  that  portion 
of  the  House  who  were  opposed  to  the  re-charter  of 
the  United  States  Bank,  and  who,  nevertheless,  dis- 
approved of  the  course  of  the  Executive  in  removing 
the  deposits,  that  some  of  their  number  should  sub- 
mit a  plan  which  should  be  conformed  to  their  views 
of  this  very  important  question.  It  seemed  to  be  a 
point  given  up,  that  the  present  Bank  of  the  United 
States  was  not  to  be  re-chartered;  and  that  so  far  as 
the  action  of  that  House  was  concerned,  the  de- 
posits were  not  to  be  restored  to  the  custody  of  that 
institution;  and  a  scheme  had  thereupon  been  de- 
vised, which  seemed  as  unsatisfactory  to  the  friends 
as  to  the  opponents  of  the  measure,  by  which  the 
public  money  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  bank. 
It  was  said  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  President  that  it 
was  extremely  desirable  the  revenue  of  the  United 
States  should  be  collected  in  specie  and  not  in  paper; 
and  in  connection  with  which  opinion  the  House  had 
heard  a  new  name  applied  to  specie:  it  had  been 
called  'Jackson  money.'  He  now  called  upon  all  who 
were  in  favor  of  'Jackson  money'  to  go  with  him  in 
support  of  the  old-fashioned,  constitutional  notion  of 
a  hard-money  government.  His  object  was  to  dis- 
connect the  Government  entirely  from  the  system  of 
banks,  whether  State  or  Federal.  It  must  be  obvious 
to  every  man  acquainted  with  the  times,  that  the 
country  could  not  get  on  with  its  present  paper  cir- 
culation. The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  the  great 
federal  monster,  closed  its  doors  against  all  investiga- 
tion of  its  concerns ;  and  to  rely  upon  such  an  institu- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     233 

tion  was  to  sap  the  foundations  of  public  liberty. 
The  advocates  of  the  State  banks  could  not  propose 
a  system  that  was  satisfactory  even  to  themselves. 
All  attempts  to  control  State  banks  were  contrary  to 
the  Constitution.  All  the  House  could  do  was  to  re- 
store the  public  deposits  to  the  authority  of  the 
Treasurer  of  the  United  States.  They  had  no  right 
to  commit  their  funds  to  the  State  banks;  they 
formed  an  instrument  of  power  which  he  should  be 
very  sorry  to  see  put  in  the  hands  of  the  Government. 
The  country  was  in  a  very  unfortunate  condition. 
An  interminable  war  had  been  declared  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  against  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States;  but  who  could  doubt  that  a  very 
different  state  of  things  would  have  taken  place,  if 
the  bank  had  thrown  its  vast  power  into  the  aid  of 
the  Executive?  And  should  he  succeed  in  substi- 
tuting any  combination  of  banks  in  its  stead,  and 
consequently  in  obtaining  a  control  over  their  inter- 
ests, it  could  not  but  prove  a  most  dangerous  instru- 
ment in  the  hands  of  any  Chief  Magistrate.  It 
would  enable  him  to  tamper  with  the  pecuniary 
affairs  of  the  States;  and  though  its  management 
might  require  more  address  than  would  be  requisite 
to  attain  the  control  of  a  single  institution,  yet  the 
consequences  would  be  equally  dangerous  to  the  se- 
curity of  liberty.  Whichever  way  the  friends  of  a 
united  and  constitutional  government  turned  their 
eyes,  they  saw  equal  dangers  in  the  prospects  before 
them.  Let  them,  then,  endeavor  to  simplify  the 
fiscal  machine ;  let  them  endeavor  to  get  a  simple  sys- 
tem, which  should  be  subject  to  the  control  of  Gov- 
ernment alone  (he  meant,  the  control  of  Congress,) 
and  which  should  be  wholly  disconnected  with  all 
paper  money  of  every  description.  If  the  various 
and  conflicting  opinions  of  the  House  could  thus  be 
compromised,  an  achievement  would  be  effected  in 
favor  of  a  limited  and  constitutional  Government 
such  as  had  never  been  witnessed  before.  It  must  be 


234    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

evident  to  all,  that  the  whole  tendency  of  government 
was  to  accumulate  power.  Whenever  an  election  of 
President  was  approaching  (and  when  was  it  at  a 
great  distance?)  all  great  questions  of  policy  were 
made  to  bear  upon  that  all-agitating  topic.  All  good 
men  began  to  tremble  for  our  institutions.  Amidst 
the  strife  and  rude  war  of  such  mighty  interests,  vir- 
tue and  patriotism  shrank  back  in  dismay.  But 
would  gentlemen  make  no  effort  to  diminish  this  dan- 
ger? Must  there  still  be  a  war  against  internal  im- 
provements, a  war  against  the  tariff,  a  war  against 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  or  against  the  State 
banks,  altogether  distinct  from  any  regard  to  the 
happiness  of  the  people?  Were  the  President  and 
the  Bank  to  be  left  in  deadly  conflict?  Must  there 
be  no  end  to  these  political  contests?  Who  could  go 
home  and  leave  things  in  their  present  condition,  and 
not  apprehend  the  worst  consequences?  He  called 
upon  the  House  to  make  a  generous,  magnanimous 
effort  to  free  the  country;  he  invited,  he  invoked 
them,  to  give  up  something  of  their  party  prejudices, 
and  to  unite  together  to  steer  in  a  safe  middle  course 
the  vessel  of  state,  now  in  such  imminent  danger  of 
rocks  on  the  one  side  and  whirlpools  on  the  other. 

"He  observed  that  the  measure  he  had  proposed 
was  one  of  extreme  simplicity.  He  should  not  now 
attempt  to  go  into  the  details  which  belonged  to  it; 
if  the  principle  were  approved,  the  details  might  be 
easily  arranged.  He  simply  proposed  to  make  those 
who  received  the  revenue  the  agents  for  its  custody, 
when  not  exceeding  a  given  amount,  and  constituting 
them  the  agents,  also,  for  its  disbursement.  He  was 
aware,  indeed,  that  the  members  of  the  House  had 
so  long  been  in  the  habit  of  considering  matters  of 
revenue  as  matters  pertaining  to  a  bank,  that  it  was 
difficult,  perhaps,  for  them  to  admit  of  any  other 
idea.  But  Mr.  Gordon  did  not  propose  to  interfere 
with  the  banking  principle;  he  had  nothing  to  do 
with  their  notes,  whether  small  or  large.  Let  them 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     235 

regulate  that  as  they  could.  He  did  not  interfere 
with  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  He  went  only 
for  what  was  originally  intended,  and  what  alone 
was  contemplated  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution, 
viz:  that  the  revenue  should  be  collected  in  coin. 
Coin  was  the  only  legal  tender  now,  yet  the  Govern- 
ment had  made  paper  substantially  such.  He  was 
for  putting  an  end  to  this.  He  was  most  clearly  of 
opinion  that  the  hard-money  system  was  the  simplest 
and  best  the  Government  could  ultimately  adopt. 
There  might  be  some  objections  urged  against  it. 
Some  gentlemen  might  apprehend  that  it  would  with- 
draw too  large  an  amount  from  circulation.  But 
this  objection  was  not  well  founded.  As  the  duties 
on  imports  should  decrease,  the  amount  of  surplus 
revenue  would  be  less  and  less ;  it  would  soon  be  but 
a  few  millions.  It  might  be  said  that  the  transfers 
of  money  would  not  be  made  as  easily  as  by  a  federal 
bank  with  branches.  All  that  would  be  requisite 
would  be  drafts  from  the  Treasury,  specifying  the 
place  where  the  money  should  be  paid.  These  drafts 
would  not  be  at  premium,  but  would  pass  as  money. 
They  would  be  a  substitute  for  bank  paper,  and  the 
Government  would  thus  be  delivered  from  its  con- 
nection with  the  system  of  banking;  a  system  which 
all  knew  to  have  a  corrupting  tendency,  and  which 
must  be  a  perpetual  instrument  of  party  spirit.  The 
whole  world  recognized  gold  and  silver  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  property;  it  was  the  only  real  money  in 
existence.  He  hoped  to  see  it  the  money  of  this  gov- 
ernment." 

The  report  of  this  speech  adds,  "The  amendment 
of  Mr.  Gordon  was  ordered  to  be  printed."  His 
invocation  to  the  patriotism  of  the  House,  and  his 
appeal  that  its  members  should  rise  superior  to  the 
passions  and  prejudices  of  party,  were  in  vain. 
Neither  Jacksonian  Democracy  nor  the  heterogeneous 
aggregation  of  Whiggery  would  touch  the  proposi- 


23 6    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

tion.     The  amendment,  when  put  upon  its  passage, 
was  overwhelmingly  defeated  in  the  House. 

Benton,  in  the  Senate  debate  on  the  Sub-Treasury 
Bill,  in  September,  1837,  when  the  measure  had  been 
made  an  administration  one  by  President  VanBuren, 
gave  as  the  reason  for  its  rejection  by  the  Congress 
of  1834-35  that  Jackson's  administration  could  not 
afford  to  antagonize  the  local  banks.  In  reply  to 
Mr.  Rives,  then  Senator  from  Virginia,  and  always 
a  relentless  opponent  of  the  Independent  Treasury, 
Senator  Benton  said: 

"The  Senator  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Rives)  repeats 
what  has  been  often  told  and  answered,  that  the 
friends  of  the  Administration  voted  in  a  body  against 
Mr.  Gordon's  Sub-Treasury  proposition  in  1834. 
They  did  so,  and  for  a  reason  both  notorious  and 
good  at  that  time,  but  not  good  now.  The  Adminis- 
tration could  not  cut  loose  from  the  local  banks  then  ; 
they  were  allies  against  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  and,  as  such,  had  to  be  saved.  They  were  the 
Half-Way  House  in  getting  from  the  National  Bank 
to  the  Sub-Treasury;  and  as  such  had  to  be  main- 
tained. They  are  no  longer  allies,  but  foes  and  de- 
serters. They  have  cut  loose  from  the  government, 
and  are  weight  in  favor  of  a  national  bank;  and  as 
such,  the  government  is  now  done  with  them.  It  was 
expedient  to  maintain  the  connection  in  1834;  it  is 
expedient  to  let  it  remain  dissolved  now." 

Though  lost  in  1834  and  again  in  1835,  its  author 
lived  to  see  the  ample  vindication  of  his  political  and 
financial  wisdom  in  the  origination  of  this  great 
statute,  upon  which  his  largest  fame  as  a  statesman 
is  entitled  to  rest,  in  the  later  adoption  by  President 
VanBuren  of  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme  as  a  party 
measure  and  a  rallying  cry,  and  his  party's  persis- 
tent efforts  for  its  enactment  into  law  until  its  final 
adoption.  It  was  VanBuren's  espousal  of  the  cause 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     237 

of  the  Independent  Treasury  that  moved  Calhoun, 
the  master  spirit  of  the  State-Rights  Democrats,  and 
those  who  thought  with  him,  like  Gordon,  to  aban- 
don the  Whig  association,  and  return  to  the  Demo- 
cracy. "Much  time,"  says  VonHolst,  in  his  "Life 
of  Calhoun,"  "was  to  elapse  ere  justice  was  ren- 
dered Calhoun  with  regard  to  the  course  ne  saw  fit 
to  pursue  upon  the  leading  question  of  the  day — 
President  VanBuren's  Sub-Treasury  scheme,  which 
was  to  sever  entirely  and  forever  the  connection  be- 
tween the  Government  and  banks  of  every  descrip- 
tion. It  was  but  natural  that  the  Whigs  were  deeply 
chagrined  to  see  Calhoun  part  company  with  them 
in  the  moment  when,  as  he  himself  freely  admitted, 
the  continuance  of  the  alliance  would  have  led  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  Administration  party;  but  they 
had  no  right  to  expect  anything  else  from  him.  He 
was  not  guilty  of  any  treachery,  nor  could  he  be 
justly  charged  with  inconsistency,  though  in  1835 
(1834),  when  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme  was  first 
introduced  by  General  Gordon,  he  had  declared  it 
'premature,'  and  in  1836,  when  the  proposition  was 
renewed  by  Benton,  'impracticable  at  the  time,'  nay 
even  though  he  had  himself  proposed  the  establish- 
ment of  a  United  States  Bank  for  twelve  years  'as  a 
better  and  more  practical  plan  to  unbank  the  banks.'  ' 

Neither  Calhoun  nor  Gordon  had  ever  been  a 
Whig.  They  had  associated  themselves  with  the 
Whig  party  for  the  single  purpose  -of  opposing  the 
autocracy  and  unconstitutional  usurpations  of  Jack- 
son. They  had  always  belonged  to  the  party  of 
strict  construction;  and  they  returned  together  to 
the  Democratic  ranks  upon  a  fiscal  scheme  that  took 
the  hand  of  the  Government  off  the  State  banks  on 
the  one  side,  while  it  prevented  on  the  other  the 
possible  alliance  between  a  national  administration 
and  a  national  bank. 

In  1835  Gordon  again  introduced  his  Sub-Treas- 
ury Bill;  and  it  was  again  defeated. 


23 8     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

In  September,  1837,  the  twenty-fifth  Congress 
was  convened  in  extra  session.  Martin  VanBuren 
was  President,  and  the  Calhoun  Democrats  were  sup- 
porting the  new  administration.  The  President's 
message,  which  his  ablest  biographer,  Mr.  Edward 
M.  Shepard,  in  his  "Life"  in  the  "American  States- 
men Series,"  characterizes  as  "a  message  which  marks 
the  zenith  of  his  political  wisdom,"  and  as  "one  of 
the  greatest  of  American  State  papers,"  recommended 
the  adoption  by  Congress  of  the  Independent  Treas- 
ury. When  proposed  by  the  Democratic  adminis- 
tration, the  Whigs  assailed  it  as  an  endeavor  to  break 
down  all  the  banks  in  the  country;  and  some  of  the 
Jackson  Democrats,  calling  themselves  "Conserva- 
tives," and  generally  voting  with  the  Whigs  in  finan- 
cial matters,  led  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Rives  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  Mr.  Tallmadge  of  New  York,  also  op- 
posed it.  Gordon,  whose  career  in  Congress  had 
ended  with  the  close  of  his  third  term  in  1835, 
watched  from  his  home  in  Albemarle  the  fight  that 
was  being  waged  in  the  national  legislature  about 
his  great  project,  where  on  the  floor  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  some  of  the  little  band  of  its  sup- 
porters in  1834  and  1835  still  remembered  him  and 
his  measure,  to  eulogize  both.  In  the  debate  in  the 
House,  in  committee  of  the  whole  on  the  state  of  the 
Union  in  1837,  Francis  W.  Pickens  of  South  Caro- 
lina, who,  as  Governor  of  that  State  something  over 
two  decades  later,  gave  the  order  to  fire  upon  Fort 
Sumter,  said  in  the  course  of  a  speech  advocating 
the  bill  for  a  Sub-Treasury: 

"But  I  have  said,  sir,  that  I  felt  myself  somewhat 
committed  on  this  subject.  In  1835  a  friend  of  mine 
from  Virginia  (Mr.  Gordon),  not  now  a  member  of 
this  House, — and  I  will  here  take  occasion  to 
say  of  him  that  he  is  a  gentleman  who  would 
have  done  honor  to  Virginia  in  her  proudest 
days  of  glory  and  fame — presented  the  very 
identical  proposition  to  this  House  which  is 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     239 

embraced  in  the  bill  on  your  table.  For  that 
proposition,  sir,  I  then  voted.  I  acted  from  reflec- 
tion, and  from  a  conscientious  conviction  of  the  ef- 
fects of  that  measure  to  bring  about  honesty  in  the 
Government  and  to  secure  the  independence  of  the 
people.  True  I  was  then  but  a  very  young  man,  and 
had  but  for  a  few  weeks  taken  my  seat  in  this  House. 
Yet,  sir,  I  had  made  up  my  opinion  from  observa- 
tion and  reflection.  And  although  young,  y_et,  to  use 
the  language  applied  to  another,  I  was  old  enough 
'Acta  parentum  jam  leger.e,  et  quae  sit  poterat  cog- 
no  seer  e  virtus/ 

"Sir,  I  had  formed  my  judgment  then,  and  have 
not  yielded  it  since.  On  the  contrary,  the  experience 
between  then  and  now  has  only  tended  to  confirm 
my  conviction.  I  desire  the  Clerk  to  read  the  propo- 
sition and  the  vote  upon  it.  *  *  * 

"I  will  now  quote  a  paragraph  from  the  speech 
of  the  mover  of  the  proposition,  made  at  the  time, 
as  illustrating  the  views  under  which  we  acted,  which 
too  truly  portrays  what  has  really  happened  since, 
and  what  I  fear  we  will  again  see  if  the  system  be 
continued.  Mr.  Gordon  said:  'There  is  another 
consideration  which  has  induced  me  to  offer  this 
amendment.  We  may  all  very  plainly  see  that  the 
contest  for  the  Executive  office  is  the  rock  on  which 
the  permanency  of  this  republic  is  likely  to  be 
wrecked.  And  the  vehemence  of  this  contest  will 
ever  be  in  proportion  to  the  Executive  patronage. 
But  for  this,  the  office  would  have  no  allurements 
but  for  virtuous  ambition ;  but  with  this  concomitant 
it  exerts  an  influence  which  may  one  day  prove  fatal 
to  the  federal  part  of  our  system.  If  we  do  not  sepa- 
rate the  influence  of  the  Executive  from  the  interests 
of  banking  corporations,  we  shall  have  another  con- 
troversy on  the  subject  of  banks.  The  political  will 
be  united  with  the  money  power;  the  contest  must 
come;  it  will  come.  You  will  witness  a  struggle  in 
this  Capitol  between  State  banks  and  Federal  banks; 


24o    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

and  the  combatants  for  the  President's  chair  will  be 
found  contending  in  different  ranks  of  interest  and 
influence,  whilst  they  mar  the  peace  of  the  country, 
and  shake  the  pillars  of  the  Constitution.  Separate 
them,  I  beseech  you,  representatives  of  the  American 
people,  if  you  wish  to  put  down  this  fearful  contest 
for  the  Presidential  chair — I  had  almost  said  Presi- 
dential throne;  separate,  I  beseech  you,  banking  and 
politics.  Let  the  banks  facilitate  the  exchanges  of 
commerce,  and  further  the  interests  of  trade;  but 
let  them,  I  pray  you,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Government.'  " 


CHAPTER  XVI 


Upon  its  re-introduction  by  him  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  again  as  an  amendment  to  the  Bank- 
Deposit  Bill,  on  the  roth  of  February,  1835,  Gor- 
don addressed  the  House  in  greater  detail  upon  the 
significance  and  effect  of  his  measure.  The  official 
report  of  his  speech  states  that  "When  Mr.  Gordon 
had  offered  his  amendment,  he  addressed  the  House 
as  follows : 

"In  presenting  the  amendment  which  has  just 
been  read.  I  candidly  acknowledge  that  I  do  not  at 
this  time  entertain  a  very  distinct  hope  of  obtaining 
in  its  favor  the  votes  of  a  majority  of  this  body.  I 
presented,  at  the  last  session,  a  similar  amendment 
to  a  bill  then  pending;  and  I  was  induced  to  do  so 
by  the  deep  interest  felt,  both  here  and  elsewhere, 
in  the  discussions  which  were  then  carried  on  in  Con- 
gress, touching  the  management  of  the  public  reve- 
nue. When,  within  sixty  days  of  the  meeting  of 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  I  beheld  the  ex- 
traordinary spectacle  of  the  executive  head  of  this 
confederacy  attempting,  through  his  power  of  ap- 
pointment, and  the  practice  of  removal  from  office, 
to  control  and  regulate  the  deposits  of  the  public 
revenue,  it  did,  I  confess,  awaken  in  my  mind  feel- 
ings of  the  deepest  surprise  and  alarm. 

"In  the  controversy  which  was  so  warmly  prose- 
cuted in  this  House  in  relation  to  the  subject,  the 
members  of  Congress  were  divided  into  two  parties — 
one  in  favor  of  the  continuance  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  giving  to  it  the  custody  of  the 
16 


242     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

public  revenue;  another  in  defence  of  the  executive  in- 
terference, in  its  removal,  and  of  substituting  the  banks 
of  the  different  States.  I  was  one  of  a  small  class 
of  Representatives  on  this  floor  opposed  to  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  both  because  it  was  unconstitu- 
tional, and  is  an  institution  capable  of  wielding  a 
power  dangerous  to  republican  government,  and  also 
opposed  to  the  executive  interference  in  any  way  with 
the  revenues  of  the  people,  because  I  considered  it 
to  be  a  vital  principle  in  all  free  governments,  that 
the  revenue  must,  in  all  respects,  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  people  or  their  representatives,  to  whom 
alone  it  pertained  to  say  how  it  shall  be  raised  and 
collected,  by  whom  it  shall  be  paid,  how  it  shall  be 
disbursed,  to  what  uses  it  shall  be  applied,  and  by 
whom  and  where  it  shall  be  kept. 

"It  was  argued  by  the  friends  of  the  Executive, 
that  such  an  institution  as  the  United  States  Bank 
was  dangerous  to  a  free  government,  from  its  exten- 
sive and  powerful  influence,  as  well  over  the  public 
opinion  as  over  the  public  interest.  I  con- 
cur in  this  opinion,  and  rejoice  that  the  Bank 
is  to  be  put  down,  but  I  nevertheless  en- 
tirely disapprove  of  the  executive  interference,  in 
causing  the  public  money  to  be  removed  from  the 
custody  where  the  law  had  placed  it,  to  the  State 
banks,  where  the  law  did  not  direct  it  should  be 
placed,  and  because  the  power  and  influence  of  a 
multitude  of  State  banks,  scattered  over  every  por- 
tion of  the  country,  dependent  on  the  executive  will, 
would  be  a  dangerous  extension  of  the  patronage  of 
the  Executive,  especially  as  the  custody  and  control  of 
the  revenue  were  claimed  by  the  friends  of  the  Ad- 
ministration, in  this  behalf,  as  an  executive  power 
derived  from  the  Constitution  itself.  Perceiving,  I 
thought,  that  the  scheme  of  the  Executive  would  re- 
sult in  evils  not  then  anticipated,  I  looked  out  with 
anxiety  to  discover  some  plan  by  which  the  Federal 
Government  might  be  wholly  disconnected  from  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     243 

organized  capital  of  the  country,  whether  in  a  na- 
tional or  in  State  banks.  And  after  much  reflection 
and  consultation  with  wise  and  experienced  men,  I 
proposed  to  effect  it  by  an  amendment  to  the  bill 
then  pending,  and  presented  it  to  the  consideration 
of  Congress;  and  I  now  venture  once  more  to  sub- 
mit it  to  the  notice  of  this  body. 

"In  taking  this  step,  I  am  actuated  by  higher  con- 
siderations than  a  regard  simply  to  the  safe  keeping 
of  the  public  treasure.  I  verily  believe,  and  I  think 
experience  will  convince  the  most  incredulous  Re- 
publican, that  the  wise  and  patriotic  framers  of  our 
Constitution  have  unintentionally  given  to  the  ex- 
ecutive power  a  fearful  and  dangerous  ascendency, 
which  makes  it  an  overbalance  to  all  the  other  de- 
partments of  Government.  Limited  and  circum- 
scribed with  the  constitutional  limits,  it  is  a  power  too 
great  to  be  confided  with  safety  to  any  human  being. 
According  to  the  new  construction  placed  upon  its 
extent  by  the  present  incumbent,  and  his  supporters 
in  his  behalf,  it  is  a  mass  of  power  such  as  the  bene- 
ficent Author  of  the  world  could  alone  wield  with- 
out danger  to  human  liberty.  What  is  this  body? 
What  are  the  representatives  of  the  American  peo- 
ple? Before  the  might  of  the  executive  arm  they 
yield  as  a  rush.  When  that  exalted  officer  unrolls 
the  scroll  of  his  might,  when  he  exhibits  to  their 
anxious  eyes  the  endless  roll  of  honorable  and  profit- 
able appointments  which  await  his  pleasure,  who 
among  us  possesses  the  firmness  to  turn  with  averted 
eyes  from  the  golden  bait  of  interest  and  power? 
And  who  can  sustain  the  erectness  of  his  spirit  after 
he  has  reached  the  goal  of  his  ambition,  when  he 
feels  that  he  holds  his  station  by  the  will  of  one 
man?  And  when  it  has  become  the  practice  of  the 
Government  to  appoint  to  the  highest  of  those  places 
influential  and  devoted  members  of  this  body,  can 
any  man  expect  that  a  majority  of  its  members  should 
long  stand  up  against  the  influence  of  this  proud  and 


244    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

seducing  power  thus  exerted?  Let  it  not  be  thought 
that  I  have  any  wish  to  speak  unkindly  of  the  present 
distinguished  incumbent  of  the  executive  chair.  I 
contributed  my  humble  aid  to  elevate  him  to  the  seat 
he  occupies,  and  in  many,  in  most  of  his  acts,  he  has 
my  entire  concurrence.  But  I  have  seen  of  late, 
under  his  construction  of  the  Constitution,  and  the 
support  which  his  doctrine  and  his  course  have  re- 
ceived, the  liberties  of  this  country  brought,  as  I 
conceive,  to  the  most  imminent  danger.  Owing  to 
the  attachment  of  my  country  to  one  whom  they 
consider  as  their  great  and  distinguished  benefactor, 
the  whole  land  seems  to  be  sleeping  in  a  condition 
which,  unless  we  arouse  and  exert  ourselves,  may 
prove  the  sleep  of  depotism. 

"Mr.  Speaker,  this  Representative  hall  presents, 
or  ought  to  present,  the  true  and  legitimate  fountain 
of  public  opinion.  It  is  here  that  the  representa- 
tive of  the  people  should  take  his  stand  in  defence 
of  the  liberty  of  the  people  and  his  own  rights, 
against  the  overshadowing  influence  of  executive 
power.  But,  sir,  how  is  it  that  we  have  stood  upon 
this  floor,  and  what  is  the  resistance  which  we  have 
presented  to  executive  claims?  By  pleading  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Government  during  former  years,  in 
minor  instances,  to  justify  the  extraordinary  spec- 
tacle of  the  Chief  Executive  Magistrate  of  this  Re- 
public controlling,  by  a  single  act  of  his  will,  the 
whole  revenue  of  the  country.  In  my  recollection 
of  English  history,  I  remember  no  instance  where  a 
question  has  arisen  affecting  immediately  the  rights 
of  the  people,  invaded  by  the  King,  that  the  English 
Commons  have  not  been  true  to  the  people's  interest, 
against  the  unjust  pretensions  of  the  Crown.  But 
here,  sir,  within  these  walls,  I  regret  that  on  almost 
the  first  great  question  which  has  arisen  affecting 
the  dearest  rights  of  the  people,  directly  invaded  by 
executive  power,  a  majority  of  the  immediate  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  are  seen  rallying  on  the  side 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     245 

of  power.  Still,  had  the  act  of  the  President,  though 
to  my  mind  plainly  wrong  and  unauthorized,  re- 
sulted in  an  equal  and  beneficial  diffusion  of  the  pub- 
lic revenues  through  the  different  portions  of  the  Re- 
public, we  might  have  found  some  room  for  pallia- 
tion of  the  illegality  of  the  act  in  its  beneficence.  If 
we  could  not  approve,  we  might  at  least  have  ex- 
cused it.  But  what,  sir,  in  fact,  has  been  the  actual 
result  of  this  new  and  beautiful  arrangement  of  our 
fiscal  concerns,  so  highly  lauded  by  the  talented  and 
amiable  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means?  Of  the  twenty-four  millions  which  consti- 
tute the  gross  amount  of  our  revenue  received  from 
the  customs,  more  than  thirteen  millions,  being  col- 
lected in  one  seaport,  are  deposited  in  the  banks  of 
a  single  State,  while  the  other  twenty-three  States  are 
left  to  get  such  fragments  of  the  residue  as  chance 
or  favor  may  throw  into  their  lot.  Yes,  sir,  while 
the  great  State  of  New  York,  so  justly  styled  the 
Empire  State,  in  addition  to  all  her  other  advanta- 
ges, natural  and  political,  has  her  banking  capital 
increased  by  the  accession  of  more  than  thirteen 
millions  of  dollars,  by  a  single  wave  of  the  executive 
arm,  Virginia,  the  Old  Dominion,  receives  from  the 
same  arrangement  a  little  more,  in  gross  revenue, 
than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Ay,  sir,  that 
ancient  Commonwealth  that  has  borne  the  battle  and 
the  breeze,  which  in  all  emergencies  of  this  Repub- 
lic, if  not  foremost,  has  ever  been  found  in  the  front 
rank  in  its  defence,  in  this  distribution  of  the  Federal 
loaves  and  fishes,  puts  into  her  coffers  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  while  the  great  State  of  New  York, 
with  her  army  of  Representatives  on  this  floor,  and 
all  her  preponderating  weight  in  the  councils  of  this 
nation,  receives  the  modest  and  inconsiderable  sum 
of  thirteen  millions  of  dollars.  Whenever  I  think 
of  this  distribution,  it  reminds  me  of  Aesop's  fable 
of  the  beasts  who  hunted  with  the  lion  in  company. 
We  all  know  how  the  spoil  was  divided  then,  and  it 


246    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

is  not  difficult  now  to  tell  who  it  is  that  has  received 
the  lion's  share. 

"The  proposition  I  have  presented  is  intended  to 
remedy  these  inequalities.  Sir,  I  have  said  that  the 
Executive,  in  this  Government,  was  too  strong  for 
the  other  departments,  from  its  legitimate  constitu- 
tional power.  Commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  of 
the  navy;  controlling,  in  a  great  degree,  the  Land 
and  the  Indian  Departments,  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment, the  offices  of  the  customs,  the  jobs  and  con- 
tracts authorized  by  law, — when  you  superadd  to  the 
executive  patronage  this  power  of  dispensing  the 
revenue  to  whatever  portion  of  the  country  he  may 
please,  you  yield  a  fearful  and  highly  dangerous  ex- 
tension of  an  authority  never,  in  its  simplest  form, 
sufficiently  guarded  or  circumscribed.  The  great 
man  of  Virginia,  Patrick  Henry, — a  political  seer 
who  looked  far  down  the  stream  of  time,  and  who 
foretold  with  prophetic  truth  the  tendencies  of  this 
Government, — uttered  in  the  convention  of  Virginia 
which  adopted  the  Federal  Constitution,  this  sen- 
tentious maxim  of  political  wisdom:  'When  you 
give  power,  you  know  not  what  you  give.'  Sir,  it 
is  most  true.  When  you  give  power  to  a  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  (we  know  of  what  stuff  they  are 
made)  to  transfer  at  pleasure  the  deposits  of  the 
revenue  to  such  banks  as  may  most  successfully 
court  his  favor,  you  are  adding  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  whose  creature  he  is, — and  that, 
by  the  legislation  of  this  House, — a  most  tremendous 
and  gigantic  power.  And  how  is  it  to  be  exercised? 
Is  there  to  be  no  inequality?  Yes,  sir,  the  States 
of  the  South,  and  those  whose  representation  is  weak 
upon  this  floor,  are  to  get  nothing,  although  it  is  their 
agriculture  which  furnishes  two-thirds  of  the  entire 
amount  of  our  commerical  exports.  Sir,  you  com- 
promised the  controversy  about  the  tariff,  but  if  the 
whole  of  the  States  of  this  Union  are  to  be  taxed 
for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  bankers  and  brokers 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     247 

of  New  York,  you  are  imposing  upon  the  people  a 
burden  even  worse  than  that  of  the  tariff  itself.  Un- 
just and  oppressive  as  that  was,  it  had  still  something 
alluring  about  it  in  the  encouragement  of  our  own 
fabrications;  in  the  arts  which  adorn  and  the  arms 
which  defend  our  country — an  object  which,  could 
it  be  effected  with  fairness,  and  without  oppression, 
the  South  would  rejoice  in.  But  it  is  a  most  gloomy 
prospect  to  contemplate,  that  more  than  half  of  the 
revenue  derived  from  the  customs  of  this  vast  coun- 
try shall  go  into  the  coffers  of  New  York.  Sir,  that 
Empire  State,  with  this  fearful  addition  to  all  her 
natural  and  commercial  advantages,  will  grow  too 
powerful  for  this  Confederacy.  That  will  happen 
with  respect  to  her  which  Maryland  feared  would 
happen  as  to  Virginia,  unless  she  should  consent  to 
cede  her  western  domain.  Sir,  Virginia  put  those 
fears  to  flight.  With  a  view  to  preserve  the  equality 
of  the  States,  she  did  cede  her  western  domain,  to  be 
formed  into  States  equal  and  free  as  herself;  for, 
true  to  principle,  she  has  always  preferred  liberty  to 
power. 

"The  State  of  New  York  possesses  great  natural 
advantages,  improved  by  the  enterprise  of  her  citi- 
zens and  the  wisdom  of  her  councils.  At  this  I  re- 
joice. Her  position  is  most  felicitous.  Extensive 
in  territory,  with  the  lakes  on  one  border  and  the  At- 
lantic Ocean  on  the  other,  binding  to  her  closely 
by  ties  of  interest  whole  States  of  the  confederacy, 
she  is  possessed  of  commercial  advantages  to  which 
she  is  fairly  entitled,  and  of  which  I  would  not  wish 
to  deprive  her.  But  I  would  not  swell  her  prosperity 
by  political  regulations  calculated  to  give  her  a  fear- 
ful preponderancy;  for  should  the  political  power  of 
the  President  drift  to  a  union  with  the  commercial 
power  of  New  York,  they  will  present  a  combination 
ominous  to  freedom. 

"There  is  another  consideration  which  has  in- 
duced me  to  offer  this  amendment.  We  may  all  very 


248     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

plainly  see  that  the  contest  for  the  executive  office 
is  the  rock  on  which  the  permanency  of  this  republic 
is  likely  to  be  wrecked,  and  the  vehemence  of  this  con- 
test will  ever  be  in  proportion  to  the  executive  patron- 
age. But  for  this,  the  office  would  have  no  allurements 
save  for  virtuous  ambition;  but,  with  this  concomi- 
tant, it  exerts  an  influence  which  may  one  day  prove 
fatal  to  the  federal  part  of  our  system.  If  we  do  not 
separate  the  influence  of  the  Executive  from  the  in- 
terest of  banking  corporations  we  shall  have  another 
controversy  on  the  subject  of  banks.  The  political  will 
be  united  with  the  money  power.  The  contest  must 
come — it  will  come.  You  will  witness  a  struggle  in 
this  Capitol  between  State  banks  and  Federal  banks, 
and  the  combatants  for  the  President's  chair  will  be 
found  contending  in  different  ranks  of  interest  and 
influence,  whilst  they  mar  the  peace  of  the  country 
and  shake  the  pillars  of  the  Constitution.  Separate, 
then,  I  beseech  you,  Representatives  of  the  American 
people,  if  you  wish  to  put  down  this  fearful  contest 
for  the  Presidential  chair — I  had  almost  said  Presi- 
dential throne — separate,  I  beseech  you,  banking  and 
politics.  Let  the  banks  facilitate  the  exchanges  of 
commerce  and  further  the  interests  of  trade;  but  let 
them,  I  pray  you,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

"Mr.  Speaker,  I  know  and  feel  under  what  dis- 
advantages the  proposition  I  have  offered  comes  be- 
fore the  House.  Sir,  I  am  not  the  first  or  the  only 
man  who  has  attempted  to  arrest  the  course  of  power, 
and  I  know  at  what  a  hazard  the  attempt  is  usually 
made.  Sir,  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  has  told  us  that  the  plan  I  propose  has 
not  escaped  the  notice  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. Yet,  though  that  officer  has  presented  us  with 
a  ponderous,  I  wish  I  could  say  luminous,  report  on 
the  fiscal  concerns  of  this  Government,  he  has  passed 
this  proposition  with  a  single  glance.  When  the  gen- 
tleman from  Georgia  (Mr.  Gamble)  introduced  a 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     249 

resolution  calling  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury for  a  plan  to  collect  and  disburse  the  public 
revenue  without  the  agency  of  banks,  the  House 
voted  it  down.  The  proposition  met  with  no  favor. 
The  arrangement  was  made;  the  bargain  was  con- 
cluded; the  banks  had  got  the  money;  they  hold 
it  now;  and  the  present  bill  is  a  little  more  or  less 
than  a  form,  a  ceremony,  ratifying  the  bargain  con- 
cluded between  the  organized  capital  of  the  country 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  No  wonder  that 
officer  declined  entering  into  the  details  of  a  scheme 
which  he  himself  admitted  to  be  of  a  practical  char- 
acter, but  which  did  not  suit  the  purposes  of  power. 
Sir,  the  scheme  is  practicable;  and,  further,  I  say 
that  it  is  more  simple  and  more  efficient  than  that 
proposed  by  this  bill.  It  is  true,  the  amendment  is 
elementary  only;  it  proposes  the  germ,  the  distin- 
guishing measure  only,  of  the  plan  I  propose;  but 
were  this  agreed  upon,  how  easy  would  it  be  to  go 
on  and  perfect  the  details.  Let  these  collectors  be 
put  under  bond,  with  sufficient  security,  and  let  them 
keep  the  revenue  they  may  collect  until  called  for  by 
the  Government.  The  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means  thinks  that  this  would  keep 
too  much  specie  unemployed.  Sir,  the  day  has  not 
long  gone  by  when  this  hall,  ay,  sir,  and  the  whole 
country,  rang  with  the  cry  of  'specie!  specie!'  'Jack- 
son money!'  'yellow-jackets!'  'down  with  bank  rags!' 
Well,  sir,  I  propose  a  plan  by  which  the  business  of 
government  will  be  done  in  specie,  and  in  specie 
only;  and  the  gentleman  tells  us  that  by  law  it  is 
done  in  specie  already.  Such,  it  seems,  is  now  the 
law  of  the  land.  Sir,  I  am  glad,  exceedingly  glad, 
to  hear  it.  If  the  fact  be  so,  I  have  proposed  no  in- 
novation; and  ought  not  the  practice  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  correspond  with  the  law?  I  am  not  for 
altering  such  a  law.  But  what  does  this  bill  do? 
It  makes  it  indispensable  to  any  bank's  becoming  the 
depository  of  the  Government  funds,  that  it  have  at 


250    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

all  times  a  large  amount  of  specie  in  its  vaults.  It 
appoints  a  system  of  search  and  inspection  to  ascer- 
tain the  fact;  and  if  it  shall  be  discovered  that  the 
bank  does  not  keep  locked  up  from  circulation  a  cer- 
tain large  amount  of  specie,  the  Government  deposits 
are  withdrawn,  and  the  bank  ruined. 

"Surely,  sir,  the  specie  in  the  vaults  of  a  bank  is 
as  much  withdrawn  from  circulation  among  the  peo- 
ple as  in  the  coffers  of  a  collector  of  the  revenue. 
It  lies  there  merely  as  a  source  of  credit  to  the  bank. 
But  there  would  only  an  inconsiderable  amount  lie 
thus  idle  at  any  time.  The  money  would,  in  effect, 
be  as  useful  as  if  deposited  in  the  State  banks  them- 
selves. It  would  be  moving  in  a  constant  stream 
into  and  out  of  the  depositories.  The  banks  might 
possess  themselves  of  the  drafts  of  Government, 
which,  being  drawn  on  specie  in  the  actual  posses- 
sion of  these  agents  of  the  Treasurer,  in  favor  of  all 
public  creditors,  would  be  held  as  so  much  specie. 
Such  drafts,  or  I  am  mistaken,  would  soon  be  at  a 
premium.  There  would  be  no  difficulty  whatever  on 
that  score.  This  plan  would  probably  require  the 
creation  of  a  few  additional  officers,  I  admit,  but 
they  would  not  be  many;  possibly  there  might  none 
be  needed;  but  in  point  of  patronage  they  would 
be  nothing,  compared  with  this  fearful  connection 
between  the  organized  capital  and  the  Treasury  of  the 
Union.  If  gentlemen  will  only  aid  me  by  bestowing 
on  the  proposition  I  have  submitted  a  small  share 
of  the  labor  and  thought  applied  to  carry  into  effect 
the  State  bank  system;  if  they  will  turn  their  minds 
earnestly  to  perfecting  its  details,  they  will  find 
imagined  difficulties  fade  before  them.  They  will 
soon  be  convinced  that  honest  and  responsible  men 
are  to  be  found  in  this  country,  who  may  safely  be 
intrusted  with  the  custody  of  the  public  treasure. 
The  Treasurer,  by  his  drafts,  will  relieve  all  diffi- 
culties on  the  subject  of  exchange;  and  the  entire 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     251 

system  of  managing  the  public  revenue  will  be  re- 
duced to  the  simplest  and  easiest  form. 

"I  desire  to  limit  and  restrain  the  executive  pa- 
tronage; I  seek  to  keep  it  free  from  the  corroding 
influence  of  banks  and  banking.  Sir,  I  desire  no 
longer  to  have  it  openly  charged  upon  members  of 
Congress  that  they  have  been  bought  and  bribed  by 
a  bank.  Let  the  proposed  plan  of  the  chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  go  into  effect,  and 
the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  gentlemen  will  be 
charged  in  the  self-same  manner  with  having  been 
bribed  by  the  State  banks.  When  a  new  war  of  in- 
terest and  ambition  shall  arise,  between  a  renewed  ef- 
fort to  make  a  bank  of  the  United  States  and  the  ex- 
isting State  banks,  those  who  oppose  the 
measure  will  then  be  told  that  they  are  bribed 
by  the  State  banks.  Sir,  the  times  are  por- 
tentous; all  feel  it,  all  know  it  to  be  so. 
Everybody  knows  that  pervading  anxiety  agitates 
the  bosoms  of  the  best  and  wisest  patriots  of 
the  land;  and  no  man  can  .tell  how  the  drama  is 
to  terminate.  Let  us,  then,  endeavor  at  least  to  purify 
one  source  of  corruption.  Let  us  cut  off  at  least  one 
arm  of  dangerous  and  unnecessary  power.  We  shall 
have  the  bond  of  those  who  keep  our  money;  and 
if  it  is  not  paid,  we  will  have  it  paid.  Then  we  shall 
no  longer  be  calculating  here  how  a  million  and  a 
half  of  dollars  deficit  in  the  Treasury,  said  to  be  lost 
by  default  of  State  banks,  can  be  made  to  appear 
but  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  You  will  then 
have  an  honest  system  of  custody  for  the  public 
funds,  and  one  in  which  the  people  of  the  country 
have  a  deep  interest.  Sir,  the  great  body  of  the 
people  do  not  understand  these  banking  institutions. 
They  know  nothing  about  them;  nothing,  sir,  noth- 
ing, but  the  happy  event  of  bringing  the  United 
States  Bank  to  an  end;  and  the  use  made  of  it  for 
political  purposes  has  prevented  you  from  hearing, 
from  one  end  of  this  Confederacy  to  the  other,  one 


252     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

universal  cry  against  the  interference  of  the  Execu- 
tive with  the  public  revenue.  Sir,  the  Executive  is 
honest;  he  is  frank  and  open;  he  promised  to  kill 
the  Bank,  and  he  has  killed  it.  I  rejoice  at  it,  nor 
did  I  quit  his  side  in  this  contest  until  I  thought  he 
had  passed  the  bounds  of  constitutional  warfare,  and 
was  inflicting  wounds  on  Liberty  herself. 

"Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  the  theory  of  this  Govern- 
ment, and  it  is  no  less  the  wish  of  the  people,  that 
the  Government  shall  be  wholly  dissevered  and  kept 
distinct  from  the  religion  of  the  nation.  The  sepa- 
ration is  guaranteed  in  the  Constitution  by  an  amend- 
ment proposed  by  my  native  State.  It  is  equally 
the  provision  of  that  instrument  that  the  Government 
shall  be  equally  separated  from  the  public  press.  It 
solemnly  enjoins  that  nothing  shall  be  permitted  to 
silence  that  trumpet  which  summons  the  people  to 
the  defence  of  their  liberties.  And  it  will  turn  out 
to  be  no  less  necessary  that  the  action  of  this  Gov- 
ernment shall  be  separated  from  all  moneyed  cor- 
porations organizing  the  wealth  and  capital  of  the 
country.  Sir,  we  have  been  placed,  by  the  hand  of 
Divine  Providence,  upon  a  vast  and  fertile  conti- 
nent. We  enjoy  the  freest  government  under  heaven; 
we  have  a  great,  a  glorious  confederacy  of  free 
States;  is  it  not  our  sacred  duty  to  guard  this  fair 
inheritance  against  the  taint  of  corruption?  Sir,  I 
declare  before  this  body,  upon  the  integrity  of  my 
honor,  that  the  effort  I  have  now  made  is  utterly 
disconnected  with  all  party  aims  and  party  feeling. 
I  believe  some  such  expedient  indispensable  to  liber- 
ty. And  were  I  authorized  to  speak,  I  would  say 
that  I  do  believe  the  great  man,  whose  genius  and 
whose  patriotic  valor  have  raised  him  to  the  first 
seat  in  this  Government,  would  himself,  being  no 
advocate  of  banks,  prefer  such  a  measure  to  that 
proposed  in  this  bill. 

"I  know  there  are  some  slight  inconveniences  at- 
tending the  plan.  But  these,  whatever  they  may  be, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     253 

are  but  dust  in  the  balance  in  comparison  to  the  dan- 
gerous tendency  of  that  now  held  out  to  us,  and 
which  may  one  day  shake  this  Confedracy  to  its 
deepest  foundations.  The  agitation  attending  the 
pulling  down  of  the  national  bank  has  not  subsided 
to  this  day;  the  undulation  of  the  billows  will  long 
be  visible;  nor  will  banking  controversies,  for  our 
immense  revenues,  cease  until  some  efficient  substi- 
tute shall  be  provided  by  Congress. 

"As  to  the  details  of  the  scheme  I  have  now  had 
the  honor  to  propose  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  they  may  be  arranged  at  leisure  when  once 
the  principle  of  the  scheme  is  settled.  I  did  not  pre- 
sent my  proposition  as  containing  a  perfect  plan; 
but,  if  its  principle  shall  be  approved  of,  the  sub- 
ordinate arrangements  need  be  attended  with  but 
little  difficulty. 

"Sir,  I  am  fully  aware  of  the  desultory  and  ir- 
regular manner  in  which  I  have  been  able  to  present 
my  thoughts  of  the  House;  but  they  have  been  con- 
ceived, I  trust,  in  purity  of  purpose,  as  they  have 
been  frankly  uttered.  Let  us  not  lend  our  aid  to  the 
enactment  of  laws  which  go  only  to  swell  the  al- 
ready portentous  tide  of  executive  power;  rather, 
whilst  we  restrain  ourselves  within  the  limits  pre- 
scribed by  the  Constitution,  let  us  use  our  best  ef- 
forts to  curb  executive  encroachment  on  our  legis- 
lative rights,  and  to  provide  more  effectual  safe- 
guards for  the  liberties  of  the  people." 

This  speech,  proceeding  from  a  man  practically 
without  a  party  following,  upon  a  measure  which 
was  objectionable  alike  to  the  old  Bank  of  the  United 
States  men,  and  to  the  administrationists,  neverthe- 
less produced  a  strong  impression  on  the  House,  al- 
though it  failed  to  win  more  than  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  votes  to  the  support  of  the  measure 
which  it  advocated.  In  the  debate  on  the  Deposit 
Bill,  which  had  been  opened  by  Mr.  James  K.  Polk 


254    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

of  Tennessee,  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means,  Gordon's  amendment,  proposing 
the  Independent  Treasury,  was  discussed  by  Mr. 
Samuel  McDowell  Moore  of  Virginia,  Mr.  Ewing 
of  Ohio,  Mr.  Robertson  of  Virginia,  Mr.  Churchill 
C.  Cambreling  of  New  York,  Mr.  Clayton  of 
Georgia,  and  Mr.  Wilson  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  Ewing  "acquiesced  in  a  large  portion  of  the 
argument  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Mr. 
Gordon)  though  he  could  not  support  his  amend- 
ment. The  subordinate  officers  of  this  Government, 
or  any  man  rewarded  with  office,  merely  for  party 
services,  should  never  become  the  depositories  of 
the  people's  money  with  his  consent." 

"Mr.  Ewing  offered  a  new  bill  of  twenty-seven 
sections,  as  an  amendment  to  that  of  Mr.  Gordon;" 
and  "rose  to  remark  briefly  on  the  amendment  or 
substitute  sent  to  the  table,  and  to  move,  before  he 
resumed  his  seat,  to  refer  it,  with  the  amendment 
of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Gordon)  and 
also  the  bill  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means, 
to  a  select  committee  to  consist  of  one  member  from 
each  State  in  the  Union.  He  said  he  adopted  this 
course  because  the  subject  was  one  of  deep,  general, 
and  vital  importance  to  the  whole  country.  Its  ef- 
fects will  remain  when  the  passions  and  parties  of 
the  present  day  shall  have  passed  to  the  bourn  of 
oblivion;  and  it  should  be  presented  to  this  House 
and  discussed  free  of  all  party  predilections." 

Mr.  Robertson  said:  "Favoring,  himself,  the 
principle  of  that  (the  amendment)  proposed  by 
his  colleague  (Mr.  Gordon),  so  far  as  it  dispensed 
with  the  agency  of  banking  operations,  and  desirous 
of  seeing  that  principle  embodied  into  some  practi- 
cable plan,  he  should  move  a  commitment  of  the  bill 
to  the  committee  which  had  reported  it,  with  in- 
structions to  report  a  plan  to  effect  that  object." 

"Mr.  Cambreling  said:  "The  gentleman  from 
Virginia  (Mr.  Gordon)  has  told  us  that  the  Presi- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     255 

dent  has  'possessed  himself  of  the  whole  revenue  of 
the  country,'  and  that  'our  rights  and  our  liberties 
are  in  danger.'  The  gentleman  surely  cannot  have 
forgotten  the  act  of  March,  1809,  referred  to  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  under  which  all  pub- 
lic moneys  in  the  hands  of  disbursing  officers  are 
directed  to  be  deposited  in  banks  to  be  'designated 
for  the  purpose  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States' ;  an  act  which  was  not  repealed  even  by  the 
charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  which 
stands  to  this  day  the  law  of  the  land.  Under  that 
act,  sir,  continued  for  six  and  twenty  years,  our 
Presidents  were  authorized  to  control,  so  far  as  the 
mere  question  of  deposit  was  concerned,  some  five 
hundred  millions,  for  the  use  of  our  army,  navy,  and 
for  other  Government  purposes.  If  there  is  any- 
thing substantial  in  this  argument  about  the  union 
of  the  purse  and  the  sword,  or  any  abuse  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  this  control  over  the  public  money,  the  legis- 
lative and  not  the  executive  branch  is  responsible  to 
the  country  for  its  origin. 

"(Mr.  Gordon  disclaimed  having  said  anything 
about  the  union  of  the  purse  and  the  sword) ." 

Mr.  Clayton  said:  "In  presenting  my  reasons  for 
voting  against  the  bill  on  your  table,  and  sustaining 
the  substitute  offered  by  the  gentleman  from  Vir- 
ginia (Mr.  Gordon)  I  shall  briefly  urge  what  I 
have  always  done  against  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  viz:  that  any  concern  on  the  part  of  the 
General  Government  with  banks  of  any  description  is 
not  only  unconstitutional  but  inexpedient." 

Mr.  Mann  was  disturbed  by  what  Mr.  Gordon 
said  about  the  State  of  New  York.  "The  inference 
which  it  appears  to  me  necessarily  follows  from  the 
scope  of  the  remarks  of  the  gentleman,  taken  alto- 
gether, (and  I  state  it  as  an  inference),  is,  that  the 
power  of  New  York  is  not  only  too  great  in  the 
Union,  but  that  she  will  use  it  for  political  and  im- 
proper purposes  of  self-aggrandizement." 


256     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Mr.  Gordon  said  that  he  "had  not  intended  to 
utter  a  word  disrespectful  to  the  State  of  New  York; 
that  he  admired  that  State,  and  its  rapid  progress  and 
improvements;  and  protested  against  any  inferences 
being  drawn  by  the  gentleman  from  New  York  ( Mr. 
Mann)  which  his  language  did  not  warrant." 

Mr.  Wilson,  of  Virginia,  "was  opposed  to  the 
amendment  of  Mr.  Gordon.  Believing  that  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  would  not  be  rechartered, 
he  was  satisfied  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  employ 
the  State  banks  as  the  fiscal  agents  of  the  Govern- 
ment." 

The  House  refused  to  recommit  the  bill;  and  de- 
feated the  amendment  of  Mr.  Ewing  to  Gordon's 
amendment.  The  amendment  of  Mr.  Gordon,  pro- 
viding for  the  Independent  Treasury,  was  then  de- 
feated by  a  yea  and  nay  vote  of  thirty-two  yeas  and 
one  hundred  and  sixty-one  nays. 

The  members  voting  in  the  affirmative  were : 
Messrs.  John  Quincy  Adams,  Heman  Allen,  John  T. 
Allen,  Chilton  Allan,  Archer,  Barber,  Beale,  Beaty, 
Campbell,  Claiborne,  William  Clark,  Clayton,  Amos 
Davis,  Davenport,  Deberry,  Foster,  Gamble,  Ghol- 
son,  Gordon,  Griffin,  Heath,  Letcher,  Lewis,  Martin- 
dale,  McComas,  Pickens,  Robertson,  Spangler, 
Steele,  William  P.  Taylor,  Wilde,  Williams  and 
Henry  A.  Wise. 

Thus  ended  Gordon's  personal  connection  with  a 
measure  which  has  now  been  for  many  decades  so 
firmly  imbedded  in  the  fiscal  scheme  of  the  United 
States  Government  as  that  its  continued  existence  is 
likely  to  terminate  only  with  the  end  of  the  Govern- 
ment itself. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

"V  "~.  * "'       ; 

THE   INDEPENDENT  TREASURY 

The  extra  session  of  Congress  in  1837,  called  by 
VanBuren,  adjourned  six  days  after  the  close  of  the 
debate  on  the  Sub-Treasury  bill.  Upon  its  reassem- 
bling in  regular  session  irt  December,  1837,  the 
measure  was  again  pressed  upon  Congress  by  the 
Administration.  Mr.  Wright,  of  New  York,  from 
the  Senate  Committee  on  Finance,  reported  the  bill 
on  the  1 6th  of  January,  1838.  It  passed  the  Senate 
on  the  4th  of  March,  by  a  vote  of  27  to  25,  among 
those  who  voted  for  it  being  Benton  King  of  Ala- 
bama, Franklin  Pierce  of  New  Hampshire,  Walker 
of  Mississippi,  and  Silas  Wright.  Recorded  as  vot- 
ing against  it  were  the  great  triumvirate,  Calhoun, 
Webster  and  Clay.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  in  favor  of  the 
bill  as  Gordon  had  originated  it.  But  he  voted 
against  it  now  because  that  portion  of  the  original 
measure  providing  for  "hard  money"  had  been 
stricken  out.  The  two  Senators  from  Virginia  were 
divided  upon  it,  Mr.  Roane  voting  for  the  bill,  and 
Mr.  Rives  opposing  it. 

"Calhoun  now  rejoined  the  Democratic  party," 
says  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Shepard  in  his  luminous  discus- 
sion of  the  Sub-Treasury,  in  his  "Life  of  VanBuren," 
in  "The  American  Statesmen  Series."  "It  was  only 
the  year  before  he  had  denounced  it  as  'a  powerful 
faction  held  together  by  the  hopes  of  public  plunder' ; 
and  early  in  this  very  year  he  had  referred  to  the 
removal  of  the  deposits  as  an  act  fit  for  'the  days  of 
Pompey  or  Caesar,'  and  had  declared  that  even  a 
Roman  Senate  would  not  have  passed  the  expunging 
resolution  'until  the  times  of  Caligula  and  Nero.' 
But  VanBuren,  Calhoun  now  said,  had  been  driven 


258    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

to  his  position;  nor  would  he  leave  the  position  for 
that  reason.  He  referred  to  the  strict  construction 
of  the  powers  of  the  government  involved  in  the  di- 
vorce of  bank  and  state.  There  was  no  suggestion 
that  VanBuren  had  become  a  convert  to  Nullifica- 
tion. But  Calhoun  could  with  consistency  support 
VanBuren.  The  Independent  Treasury  scheme  was 
plainly  far  different  from  the  removal  of  the  deposits 
from  one  great  bank  to  many  lesser  ones  * 
Calhoun  joined  Silas  Wright  and  the  other  adminis- 
tration Senators;  but  he  still  maintained  a  grim  and 
independent  front." 

This  grim  and  independent  front  was  illustrated 
in  his  refusal  to  support  the  administration  measure, 
upon  which  he  had  returned  to  the  party  of  the  ad- 
ministration, and  which  had  been  the  most  potent  in- 
fluence in  recalling  the  strict  constructionists,  who  had 
revolted  against  Jackson  in  his  fight  on  the  Bank, 
from  their  affiliation  with  the  Whig  party.  He  re- 
jected it,  because  it  did  not  contain  the  hard  money 
feature,  which  had  characterized  it  as  Gordon  had 
fashioned  it. 

The  bill  went  from  the  Senate,  with  its  narrow 
majority  of  two  votes,  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, where  it  was  again  defeated  on  the  25th  of 
June,  1828,  by  a  vote  of  125  nays  to  in  yeas. 
Gordon's  successor,  Mr.  Garland,  from  the  Albe- 
marle  district,  was  one  of  Mr.  Rives's  "Conserva- 
tives," and  voted  against  it.  Thus  the  Whigs  and 
the  Conservatives  again  put  the  measure  to  sleep. 
Mr.  Foster  of  New  York  moved  a  reconsideration  of 
the  vote  by  which  the  bill  was  defeated.  His  motion 
was  lost  by  a  vote  of  205  nays  to  2 1  yeas. 

Once  more,  in  the  26th  Congress,  the  Sub-Treasury 
Bill  came  to  the  front.  The  Senate  passed  it,  by  a 
majority  of  six  in  a  vote  of  forty-two,  on  the  23rd  of 
January,  1840.  It  had  the  hard-money  feature  re- 
stored, and  Mr.  Calhoun  voted  for  it.  Again  it  went 
to  the  House,  which  on  the  3<Dth  of  June  adopted  it 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     259 

by  a  vote  of  124  in  its  favor  to  107  against  it,  after 
a  debate  that  lacked  nothing  of  the  interest  which  the 
proposition  had  formerly  excited. 

"Again,"  writes  Mr.  Shepard,  "the  wisdom  of  sep- 
arating bank  and  state,  again  the  wrong  of  using 
public  moneys  to  aid  private  business  and  speculation, 
were  stated  with  perfectly  clear,  but  uninspiring  logic. 
Again  came  the  antiphonal  cry,  warm  and  positive, 
against  the  cruelty  of  withdrawing  the  Government 
from  an  affectionate  care  for  the  people,  and  from 
its  duty  generously  to  help  every  one  to  earn  his  liv- 
ing. In  and  out  of  Congress  it  was  the  debate  of  the 
time,  and  rightly;  for  it  involved  a  profound  and 
critical  issue,  which  since  the  foundation  of  the  Gov- 
ernment has  been  second  in  importance  only  to  the 
questions  of  slavery  and  national  existence  and  re- 
construction." 

The  victory  thus  won,  by  so  narrow  a  margin,  was 
correspondingly  brief  in  its  continuance.  Soon  after 
the  assembling  of  the  2yth  Congress  in  extra  session 
in  May,  1841,  Mr.  Clay  reported  from  the  Senate 
Finance  Committee  a  bill  to  repeal  the  Independent 
Treasury  law.  The  repealing  bill  passed  the  Senate 
by  a  vote  of  29  to  18,  and  the  House  with  amend- 
ments, in  which  the  Senate  concurred,  by  a  vote  of 
134  to  87.  President  Tyler  signed  the  repeal-bill; 
and  the  Independent  Treasury  scheme  was  once  more 
put  out  of  action. 

In  1846,  in  the  first  administration  of  James  K. 
Polk,  the  Sub-Treasury  law  was  restored  to  the 
statute-book,  there  to  remain  thenceforth  as  a  perma- 
nent part  of  the  fiscal  system  of  the  Government.  It 
had  been  the  object  about  which  political  activities  of 
great  magnitude  and  significance  had  asserted  them- 
selves, and  over  which  tremendous  intellects  had  con- 
tended with  equally  tremendous  passions.  It  was  the 
question  on  which  Clay  had  taunted  Calhoun  as 
abandoning  his  party,  and  deserting  to  the  enemy; — 
a  taunt  to  which  the  South  Carolinian  had  retorted, 


26o    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

referring  to  the  coalition  which  John  Randolph  had 
called  that  of  'Blifil  and  Black  George,'  between 
Adams  and  Clay,  that  the  latter  had  upon  a  memor- 
able occasion  gone  over,  leaving  it  to  time  to  disclose 
his  motives.  "Here  it  was,"  says  Mr.  Shepard,  "that 
in  the  decorous  fury  of  the  times,  both  Senators 
stamped  accusations  with  scorn  in  the  dust,  and 
hurled  back  darts  fallen  harmless  at  their  feet." 

The  Independent  Treasury  scheme  was  charged 
by  its  enemies  with  being  a  device  of  VanBuren's  that 
was  "blood-curdling,"  and  an  instrument  of  tyranny, 
whereby  the  people  were  to  be  ground  "to  the  very 
dust  by  the  awful  despotism  of  their  rulers."  A 
measure,  which  in  the  opinion  of  such  strict-construc- 
tionists  as  Calhoun  and  Tazewell,  so  illustrated  and 
distinguished  VanBuren's  adherence  to  State-Rights 
as  that  upon  its  adoption  by  him  as  an  administration 
measure,  they,  and  thousands  of  their  way  of  think- 
ing, left  the  Whigs  to  return  to  Democracy,  was  de- 
nounced by  its  opponents  as  a  project  of  centralizing 
tendencies,  and  as  constituting  "a  union  of  the  sword 
and  the  purse" — the  very  phrase  which  Cambreling 
had  attributed  to  Gordon's  denunciation  of  the  con- 
trol of  the  deposits  in  the  "pet  banks"  by  the  Execu- 
tive, in  the  debate  in  the  House  in  1835.  The  State 
banks  antagonized  VanBuren's  administration  be- 
cause of  the  Sub-Treasury;  and  the  advocates  of  a 
National  Bank,  under  a  covert  defense  of  State  bank- 
ing institutions,  fought  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme  with 
a  no  less  relentless  hostility.  The  antagonism  of 
what  Gordon  had  dubbed  "the  money  power"  ex- 
hibited itself  in  assaulting  what  it  discovered  it  was 
unable  to  control.  In  the  debate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  in  the  session  of  1839-1840,  a  mem- 
ber^ from  North  Carolina  exposed  with  relentless 
logic  the  insincerity  of  the  attitude  of  the  national 
bank  advocates.  "Some  gentlemen  have  been  seized 
with  a  wonderful  regard  for  the  institutions  of  the 
States;  lips  which  have  poured  forth  scorn  and  de- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     261 

rision  upon  the  doctrine  of  State-Rights  have  lately 
used  most  honeyed  phrases,  and  invoked  the  South 
to  interfere  and  reject  a  measure  that  will  destroy 
their  local  banks.  Sir,  the  real  object  of  this  pre- 
tended sympathy  is  to  play  on  the  feelings  of  hon- 
orable members,  and  use  them  to  advance  a  measure 
condemned  by  our  constituents,  and  utterly  repug- 
nant to  their  interests;  they  hope  to  destroy  this  bill 
(for  the  Independent  Treasury)  and  establish  a 
great  national  bank,  which  is  so  friendlv  to  the  States, 
and  so  little  hostile  to  their  own  corporations!" 

The  arguments  urged  against  the  Sub-Treasury, 
where  they  did  not  proceed  from  those  directly  or 
indiectly  interested  in  the  banks,  were  political.  Mr. 
Webster  said  that  the  act  was  a  backward  step  from 
developed  civilized  credit  to  bolts  and  bars.  "The 
use  of  money,"  he  said  "is  in  the  exchange.  It  is  de- 
signed to  circulate,  not  to  be  hoarded.  All  that  the 
government  should  have  to  do  with  it  is  to  receive  it 
to-day,  that  it  may  pay  it  away  to-morrow.  It  should 
not  receive  it  before  it  needs  it;  and  it  should  part 
with  it  as  soon  as  it  owes  it.  To  keep  it,  that  is,  to 
detain  it,  to  hold  it  back  from  general  use,  to  hoard 
it,  is  a  conception  belonging  to  barbarous  times  and 
barbarous  governments." 

This  sound  doctrine,  coming  from  one  of  the  ablest 
opponents  of  the  Sub-Treasury  system,  was  one  in 
which  Gordon  entirely  concurred,  because  he  was  as 
hostile  to  a  protective  tariff,  which  he  conceived  pro- 
duces a  surplus,  as  Webster  was  to  the  Independent 
Treasury.  With  his  strict  construction  views  of  the 
functions  of  a  national  confederated  government  of 
sovereign  States,  he  thought  that  no  higher  tariff 
duties  should  be  imposed  than  would  afford  a  revenue 
sufficient  to  meet  the  expenses  of  that  government, 
economically  administered.  This  was  the  view  of 
the  State-Rights  Democracy;  and  was  presented  with 
great  ability  along  with  the  other  arguments  in  de- 
fence of  the  plan,  in  a  pamphlet  by  William  M. 


262     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Gouge,  entitled,  "An  Inquiry  into  the  Expediency  of 
Dispensing  with  Bank  Agency  and  Bank  Paper  in  the 
Fiscal  concerns  of  the  United  States,"  which  is  be- 
lieved to  be  the  best  exposition  of  the  merits  of  the 
Independent  Treasury  System  that  has  ever  been  pub- 
lished. 

Gouge  replied  to  the  objection  that  the  system 
would  lock  up  money  and  prevent  its  circulation  in 
business,  that  the  Government  ought  not  to  have  the 
money  of  business,  and  there  should  be  no  surplus  to 
lock  up.  He  said,  as  Gordon  had  said,  in  his  pre- 
sentation of  the  scheme  to  Congress,  that  the  incon- 
venience of  transfer  could  be  overcome  by  the  use  of 
drafts;  and  that  specie  payment  could  be  maintained. 
He  also  argued,  as  Gordon  and  Pickens,  and  others 
of  their  way  of  thinking,  had  urged  in  Congress,  that 
the  system  would  decrease  executive  patronage  and 
power;  and  he  presented  cogent  reasons  why  the 
probabilities  of  loss  would  be  less  with  the  Sub-Treas- 
uries than  with  the  banks — an  anticipation  that  has 
been  amply  justified  by  events. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe,  however,  how  funda- 
mentally the  minds  of  political  party  leaders  may 
differ  upon  questions  of  party  policy.  In  the  2yth 
Congress  the  Sub-Treasury  matter  was  condemned  by 
the  report  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  made  on  President 
Tyler's  proposed  "Exchequer  Plan,"  in  the  follow- 
ing language : 

"Its  model  may  be  found  in  the  imperial  institu- 
tions of  Darius,  the  King  of  Persia,  and  its  principles 
have  descended,  with  little  modification  and  slight 
improvement,  it  is  believed,  through  all  governments 
where  banks  do  not  exist,  and  are  now  found  in  per- 
fect operation  in  the  island  of  Cuba  I" 

^  Such  was  the  opinion  of  a  Whig  Committee  of 
Congress  of  this   Democratic  measure,   which   Mr. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     263 

VanBuren  is  said  to  have  considered  a  Declaration 
of  Independence  second  only  to  that  earlier  docu- 
ment, penned  also  by  the  hand  of  another  and  greater 
citizen  of  the  same  Virginia  county  of  Albemarle. 

The  functions  and  operations  of  the  Independent 
Treasury  law  have  been  dealt  with  by  the  present 
writer  in  a  volume  entitled,  "Congressional  Cur- 
rency, An  Outline  of  the  Federal  Money  System," 
which  was  first  published  in  1895.  From  that  vol- 
ume the  following  brief  statement  is  now  reproduced, 
as  apposite  to  the  subject: 

"The  Independent  Treasury  Act,  now  on  the  Fed- 
eral Statute  book,  became  a  law  on  August  6,  1846; 
and  though  amended  in  many  minor  details  by  direct 
enactment,  and  diverted  from  its  original  purposes 
by  sundry  acts  of  congressional  legislation,  stands  in 
general  form  as  it  was  originally  framed  by  its  author. 

"There  are  nine  sub-treasuries  at  the  present  time, 
located  respectively  at  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  Boston,  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  New 
Orleans  and  San  Francisco.  Of  these  the  most  im- 
portant, on  account  of  its  location  and  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  its  transactions,  is  that  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  By  the  provisions  of  the  act  passed  in  1875 
for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  the  suspen- 
sion of  which  by  the  sub-treasuries  took  place  Decem- 
mer  28,  1861,  the  legal  tender  United  States  note 
known  as  the  greenback  was  made  redeemable  only 
at  the  sub-treasury  in  the  city  of  New  York.  By  sub- 
sequent legislation  the  sub-treasury  at  San  Francisco 
was  also  authorized  to  redeem  the  greenback  in 
'specie' ;  and  these  two  sub-treasuries  remain  the  only 
ones  at  which  such  redemption  may  be  made. 

"Although  the  Independent  Treasury  plan,  as 
formulated  and  adopted,  contemplated  primarily 
nothing  further  than  a  better  organization  of  the 
Treasury  in  its  methods  of  business,  and  the 
proper  collection,  safe-keeping,  and  disburse- 


264    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

ment  of  the  public  revenues;  or,  as  stated  by  Mr. 
Calhoun  in  his  speech  on  the  Independent  Treasury 
bill,  delivered  in  the  Senate  February  15,  1838,  'to 
take  the  public  money  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Ex- 
ecutive and  place  it  under  the  control  of  the  laws, 
and  to  prevent  the  renewal  of  a  connection  which 
has  proved  so  unfortunate  to  the  government  and 
the  banks,'  Federal  legislation  subsequent  to  1860, 
without  materially  altering  the  tenor  and  form  of 
the  Sub-Treasury  Act,  has  given  to  the  general 
Treasury  system  an  incomparably  greater  latitude 
and  significance  than  it  possessed  in  its  earlier  his- 
tory, and  has  incorporated  into  its  operation  fea- 
tures, which  if  not  at  variance  with  those  original 
provisions  of  the  law,  were  at  least  never  antici- 
pated in  the  purview  of  its  first  plan. 

"  *  *  *  The  financial  war  policy  which  con- 
ceived and  created  the  greenback,  with  a  legal-tender 
feature  approved  by  the  judicial  determination  of 
the  highest  Federal  tribunal;  the  compulsory  enact- 
ment of  the  Congress  which  makes  the  greenback 
redeemable  in  coin  on  presentation,  and  requires  it 
to  be  re-issued  immediately  on  redemption  by  the 
Treasury  Department;  and  the  further  financial 
legislation  by  the  Congress,  authorizing  not  only  the 
accumulation  of  silver  bullion  in  the  Treasury  and 
the  coinage  of  silver  dollars  on  a  false  ratio,  but  the 
issue  of  certificates  of  deposit  and  Treasury  promises 
to  pay  against  such  dollars  and  bullion,  and  defin- 
ing the  policy  of  the  Government  to  be  the  practical 
payment  of  the  greenbacks,  silver  certificates,  and 
Treasury  notes  in  gold  coin,  have  combined  to  set 
into  motion  other  systems  of  financial  machinery  than 
those  known  to  the  earlier  administration  of  the 
Treasury  Department.  Before  the  enactment  of  this 
later  legislation,  the  Sub-Treasury  system  as  origi- 
nally established  so  entirely  severed  the  government 
from  the  money  market  that,  fortunately,  the  bank- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     265 

ers  and  merchants  could  afford  to  laugh  at  the  in- 
significance of  the  Government  on  their  arena;  but 
its  position  was  'never  so  strong  or  so  sound  as  when, 
in  this  point  of  view,  it  was  most  ridiculous.'  ' 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

CONTEMPORARIES    IN    CONGRESS 1829-1835 

The  historians  and  biographers  of  the  time  cov- 
ered by  Gordon's  legislative  experience  in  the  United 
States  Congress  have  concurred  in  pronouncing  the 
Federal  legislature  of  the  period  a  most  extraor- 
dinary one  for  the  ability,  the  distinction,  and  the 
character  of  those  who  then  appeared  "in  the  keen, 
bright  sunlight  of  publicity."  Of  the  great  majo- 
rity of  these  men  both  history  and  biography  have 
alike  treated  at  large;  and  even  were  this  not  so, 
there  would  be  scant  space  in  such  a  work  as  the 
present  to  inscribe  even  a  list  of  the  names  of  all  of 
them  upon  its  pages.  But  of  those  who  were  of 
Gordon's  own  school  of  political  thought,  and  were 
thrown  into  a  more  or  less  close  personal  relation 
with  him,  or  who,  being  marked  as  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary, however  great  that  ordinary  was,  attracted  his 
attention  by  any  singularity  of  personal  character 
or  typical  achievement,  there  were  a  few  of  whom 
some  words  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  environment, 
and  mark  the  scenes  in  which  he  moved. 

Gordon  was  possessed  always  of  a  strong  literary 
bent.  He  was  a  Shakspearean  scholar,  not  in  the 
critical  sense,  but  with  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
dramatist's  plays  and  characters,  and  an  ability  to 
use  this  knowledge  alike  in  the  forum  and  at  the 
bar.  His  acquaintance  with  the  classic  authors  of 
his  tongue  was  varied  and  extensive;  and  his  imagi- 
nation was  charmed  and  his  sensibilities  enlivened 
by  whatever  was  best  in  the  domain  of  lighter  letters. 
"I  send  you  The  Tales  of  My  Landlord,'  "  he  wrote 
to  his  wife,  a  few  days  after  reaching  Richmond, 
in  1818,  in  his  first  session  in  the  Virginia  House  of 
Delegates;  and  with  the  letter  went  "Old  Mortality," 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     267 

"The  Black  Dwarf,"  and  "The  Heart  of  Midlo- 
thian," the  last  of  which  was  that  year  just  from  the 
press.  One  of  his  earliest  letters  to  Mrs.  Gordon 
that  was  written  from  Washington,  in  April,  1830, 
states  that  he  had  "got  Byron's  life,  by  Moore.  It 
is  an  amusing  book;  but  is  licentious  and  wicked  in 
many  passages."  Shelley,  in  the  earlier  decades  of 
the  century,  was  "flaming  amazement"  upon  the 
English  reading-world,  in  his  poems  of  ideal  beauty. 
They  attracted  Gordon's  attention,  as  did  those  of 
Scott  and  Byron  and  Moore;  but  the  infidelity, 
and  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  immorality,  of 
some  of  them  were  displeasing  to  him.  "Take  the 
book  out  of  the  house,"  he  said  to  one  of  his  sons, 
who  brought  him  the  volume,  with  words  of  praise 
for  "The  Skylark." 

It  was  the  literary  instinct  which,  amid  the  other- 
wise engrossing  consideration  of  political  questions, 
enabled  him  to  find  recreation  and  amusement  in  the 
sympathetic  society  of  such  men  as  Warren  R.  Davis, 
and  his  since  much  better  known  State-Rights  col- 
league from  Georgia,  Richard  Henry  Wilde. 

Wilde  was  a  scholar  and  poet,  whose  popular  fame 
rests  largely  upon  a  single  poem,  as  "Single  Speech" 
Hamilton's  reputation  survives  in  the  English  House 
of  Commons  in  his  one  conspiciously  brilliant  oratori- 
cal effort  there.  Wilde  wrote  many  other  verses  than 
the  melodious  lyric,  beginning: 

"My  life  is  like  the  summer  rose 

That  opens  to  the  morning  sky; 

But  ere  the  shades  of  evening  close 

Is  scattered  on  the  earth  to  die;" 

but  in  it  his  memory  as  a  poet  survives. 

Wilde,  like  Gordon,  opposed  Jackson,  and  did  not 
long  remain  in  Congress.  Later,  he  went  to  Flor- 
ence, Italy,  and  in  that  Tuscan  city,  whose  mere 
mention  recalls  a  host  of  names  that  are  garlanded 
with  the  wreaths  of  English  poetry  and  letters,  he 


268     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  Italian  literature; 
and  won  a  larger  fame  with  scholars  in  his  discovery 
there  of  some  forgotten  documents  concerning 
Dante,  and  a  mural  portrait  of  the  author  of  "The 
Divine  Comedy,"  painted  by  Giotto  on  the  wall  of 
the  Bargello  Chapel,  and  hidden  through  interven- 
ing centuries  by  the  obscuring  brush  of  an  unknown 
whitewasher. 

Another  notable  figure,  picturesque  and  unusual, 
who  came  to  his  political  end  on  account  of  his  op- 
position to  Jackson,  was  David  Crockett,  who  was 
a  member  of  Congress  from  1827  to  1831  from 
Tennessee.  It  was  sard  of  him  that  he  won  his  elec- 
tions to  the  Tennessee  legislature  and  to  Congress 
from  the  backwoodsmen  of  his  constituency  by  tel- 
ling humorous  stories  and  by  his  skill  with  the  rifle, 
and  that  he  never  read  a  newspaper  and  never  made 
a  speech.  He  was  of  the  stuff,  however,  of  which 
heroes  are  made;  for  after  leaving  Congress  he 
joined  the  Texans  in  their  struggle  for  independence, 
and  died  with  Bowie  and  Travis  and  the  other  mar- 
tyrs to  liberty,  who  fell  in  her  cause  in  the  bloody 
massacre  of  the  Alamo. 

Crockett's  election  to  Congress  afforded  a  subject 
of  infinite  jest  to  some  of  the  newspapers  of  the 
period.  The  Philadelphia  Ariel,  describing  the  back- 
woodsman's methods  of  campaigning,  said  that 
"while  his  competitor  was  telling  the  people  of  his 
great  merits,  Davy  was  giving  practical  evidence  of 
his  by  grubbing  up  a  stump  which  two  ordinary  men 
would  have  abandoned  in  despair.  This  striking 
demonstration  of  statesmanlike  qualities  was  irre- 
sistable  to  the  yeomanry  of  Tennessee,  and  the  elec- 
tion of  our  worthy  Davy  was  carried  by  acclama- 
tion." 

An  anecdote  is  told  of  him,  which  is  said  to  have 
given  him  great  vogue  among  the  Southern  mem- 
bers in  Congress.  He  was  sitting  one  day,  with 
several  of  his  colleagues,  in  the  office  of  the  old 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     269 

"Indian  Queen"  hotel,  a  hostelry  in  Washington 
much  frequented  by  the  statesmen  of  the  period.  A 
Massachusetts  member,  standing  at  the  door,  turned 
and  called  to  the  Tenneseean,  "Come  here,  Crockett! 
Here  are  a  lot  of  your  constituents!"  Crockett  and 
his  companions  crowded  to  the  door,  and  saw  a 
drove  of  mules  passing  the  tavern.  "Where  are 
they  going,  Crockett?"  queried  the  Bay  State  states- 
man. 

"They  air  a-goin'  to  Massachusetts  to  teach 
school,"  replied  Crockett  with  a  grin,  and  returned 
to  his  seat  amid  the  applause  of  his  companions. 

Crockett  said  on  one  occasion  that  although  he 
was  no  speaker,  he  intended  to  make  a  speech  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  for  he  saw  no  reason 
for  his  being  diffident,  as  he  could  lick  any  man  in 
it.  Although  he  lacked  the  gift  of  oratory,  he 
wielded  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer,  and  wrote  a  num- 
ber of  books,  among  them  a  characteristic  "Auto- 
biography," and  a  "Life  of  Martin  VanBuren,  Heir 
apparent  to  the  Government."  During  his  first 
term  in  Congress  he  attended  a  dinner  given  by  Presi- 
dent John  Quincy  Adams,  of  which  he  gave  the  fol- 
lowing account: 

"When  we  went  in  to  dinner  I  walked  round  the 
long  table  looking  for  something  I  liked.  At  last 
I  took  my  seat  just  beside  a  fat  goose,  and  I  helped 
myself  to  as  much  as  I  wanted.  But  I  hadn't  took 
three  bites  when  I  looked  away  up  the  table  at  a 
man  called  Tash  (attache).  He  was  talking  French 
to  a  woman  on  t'other  side  of  the  table.  He  dodged 
his  head  and  she  dodged  hers,  and  they  got  to  drink- 
ing wine  across  the  table.  If  they  didn't,  I  wish 
I  may  be  shot.  But  when  I  looked  back  again  my 
plate  was  gone,  goose  and  all.  So  I  just  cast  my 
eyes  down  to  t'other  end  of  the  table,  and  sure  enough 
I  seed  a  white  man  walking  off  with  my  plate.  Says 
I,  'Hello,  mister,  bring  back  my  plate.'  He  fetched 


270    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

it  back  in  a  hurry  as  you  may  suppose,  and  when  he 
sat  it  down  before  me,  how  do  you  think  it  was? 
Licked  as  clean  as  my  hand.  If  it  wasn't  I  wish  I 
may  be  shot.  Says  he,  'What  will  you  have,  sir? 
and  says  I,  'You  may  say  that  after  stealing  my 


ph 

elers.  If  I  do,  I  wish  I  may  be  shot.'  I  then  filled 
my  plate  with  bacon  and  greens,  and  whenever  I 
looked  up  or  down  the  table  I  held  my  plate  with 
my  left  hand.  If  I  didn't,  I  wish  I  may  be  shot. 
When  we  were  all  done  eating,  they  cleared  every- 
thing off  the  table  and  took  away  the  table-cloth, 
and  what  do  you  think — there  was  another  table- 
cloth under  it.  If  there  wasn't  I  wish  I  may  be 
shot.  Then  I  saw  a  man  coming  along  carrying 
a  great  glass  thing  with  a  glass  handle  below,  full 
of  little  glass  cups,  with  something  in  them  that 
looked  good  to  eat.  Says  I,  'Mister,  bring  that 
here!'  Thinks  I,  let's  taste  'em  first.  They  were 
mighty  sweet  and  good,  and  so  I  took  six  of  them. 
If  I  didn't  I  wish  I  may  be  shot." 

Crockett  evidently  shone  at  the  state  dinners  in 
the  White  House.  On  another  occasion,  before  he 
broke  with  Jackson,  he  was  the  latter's  guest  at  a 
Presidential  dinner  given  to  members  of  Congress. 
Among  other  unaccustomed  luxuries  on  the  menu 
that  confronted  Crockett's  simple  experience,  were 
champagne  and  olives.  "How  are  you  getting  on, 
Mr.  Crockett?"  called  President  Jackson  down  to 
his  guest,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye.  "First  rate, 
President,"  responded  Crockett,  as  he  paused  in  a 
diligent  play  of  knife  and  fork:  "This  here  cider 
of  yours  is  the  best  I  ever  tasted;  but  I  must  say, 
your  plums  are  a  little  green." 

It  was  doubtless  the  literary  inclination  which  dis- 
covered in  John  Quincy  Adams  a  responsive  sym- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     271 

pathy  that  brought  about  between  Gordon  and  the 
ex-President  one  of  the  most  singular,  as  well 
as  it  was  among  the  most  interesting  friendships  of 
the  former's  political  career.  Mr.  Adams  was 
elected  to  Congress  in  1831,  as  a  representative  of 
the  anti-masonic  party,  from  Massachusetts;  and 
held  the  position  until  his  death  in  1848  in  the 
Speaker's  room  of  the  House.  Gordon  had  left 
Congress  in  1835,  and  before  Mr.  Adams  aroused 
the  hostility  of  the  South  by  his  persistent  presen- 
tation of  the  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  his  congressional 
career  he  acted  independently  of  political  parties; 
and  while  he  opposed  Jackson's  conduct  in  connec- 
tion with  the  war  on  the  Bank  and  the  removal  of 
the  deposits,  he  supported  him  in  his  attitude  to- 
wards Nullification.  There  were,  therefore,  no  par- 
tisan differences  to  keep  the  two  men  apart.  Adams' 
name  led  the  rest  of  the  thirty-two  members  of  the 
House  who  in  1835  supported  Gordon's  Indepen- 
dent Treasury  amendment;  and  a  kindly  friendship, 
which  was  a  source  of  much  pleasure  to  the  younger 
man,  and  lasted  throughout  his  stay  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  sprang  up  between  them.  Two 
years  after  Gordon's  departure  from  the  scene  of 
the  struggles  over  the  Tariff,  the  Bank,  Nullification, 
and  the  other  great  governmental  problems  of  the 
times,  a  contemporaneous  writer,  in  1837,  gave  the 
following  graphic  picture  of  Mr.  Adams: 

"Our  attention  is  now  attracted  to  a  ray  of  light 
that  glitters  on  the  apex  of  a  bald  and  noble  head, 
'located'  on  the  left  of  the  House,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Speaker's  chair.  It  proceeds  from  that 
wonderful  man  who  in  his  person  combines  the  agita- 
tor, poet,  philosopher,  statesman,  critic  and  orator, 
John  Quincy  Adams.  Who  that  has  seen  him  sitting 
beneath  the  cupola  of  the  hall,  with  the  rays  of  light 
gathering  and  glancing  about  his  singularly  polished 


272     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

head,  but  has  likened  him  to  one  of  the  luminaries  of 
the  age,  shining  and  glittering  in  the  political  firma- 
ment of  the  Union.  There  he  sits,  hour  after  hour, 
day  after  day,  with  untiring  patience,  never  absent 
from  his  seat,  never  voting  for  an  adjournment, 
vigilant  as  the  most  jealous  member  of  the  House, 
his  ear  ever  on  the  alert,  himself  always  prepared 
to  go  at  once  into  the  profoundest  questions  of  state, 
or  the  minutest  points  of  order.  What  must  be  his 
thoughts  as  he  ponders  upon  the  past,  in  which  he 
has  played  a  part  so  conspicuous?  We  look  at  him 
and  mark  his  cold  and  tearless  eye,  his  stern  and 
abstracted  gaze,  and  conjure  up  phantoms  of  other 
scenes.  We  see  him  amid  his  festive  and  splendid 
halls  ten  years  back,  standing  stiff  and  awkward, 
and  shaking  a  tall,  military-looking  man  by  the 
hand,  in  whose  honor  the  gala  was  given,  to  com- 
memorate the  most  splendid  of  America's  victories. 
We  see  him  again,  years  afterwards,  the  bitter  foe 
of  the  same  military  chieftain,  and  the  competitor 
with  him  for  the  highest  gift  of  a  free  people.  We 
look  upon  a  more  than  king,  who  has  filled  every 
department  of  honor  in  his  native  land,  still  at  his 
post;  he  who  was  the  President  of  millions,  now 
the  representative  of  forty-odd  thousand,  quarrel- 
ing about  trifles  or  advocating  high  principles.  To- 
day growling  and  sneering  at  the  House  with  an 
abolition  petition  in  his  trembling  hand,  and  anon 
lording  over  the  passions,  and  lashing  the  members 
into  the  wildest  state  of  enthusiasm  by  his  indignant 
and  emphatic  eloquence.  Alone,  unspoken  to,  un- 
consulted,  never  consulting  with  others,  he  sits  apart, 
wrapped  in  his  reveries;  and  with  his  finger  resting 
on  his  nose,  he  permits  his  mind  to  move  like  a 
gigantic  pendulum,  stirring  up  the  hours  of  the  past 
and  disturbing  those  of  a  hidden  future;  or  prob- 
ably he  is  writing — his  almost  perpetual  employ- 
ment— but  what?  Who  can  guess?  Perhaps  some 
poetry  in  a  young  girl's  album!  He  looks  en- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     273 

f eebled,  but  yet  he  is  never  tired ;  worn  out,  but  ever 
ready  for  combat;  melancholy,  but  let  a  witty  thing 
fall  from  any  member,  and  that  old  man's  face  is 
wreathed  in  smiles;  he  appears  passive,  but  woe  to 
the  unfortunate  member  that  hazards  an  arrow  at 
him;  the  eagle  is  not  swifter  in  his  flight  than  Mr. 
Adams;  with  his  agitated  finger  quivering  in  sar- 
castic gesticulation,  he  seizes  upon  his  foe,  and  amid 
the  amusement  of  the  House,  rarely  fails  to  take  a 
signal  vengeance. 

"His  stores  of  special  knowledge  on  every  sub- 
ject, gradually  garnered  up  through  the  course  of 
his  extraordinary  life,  in  the  well-arranged  store- 
house of  a  memory  which  is  said  to  have  never  yet 
permitted  a  single  fact  to  escape  it,  give  him  a  great 
advantage  over  all  comers  in  encounters  of  this 
kind.  He  is  a  wonderful,  eccentric  genius.  He  be- 
longs to  no  party,  nor  does  any  party  belong  to  him. 
He  is  of  too  cold  a  nature  to  belong  to  a  party 
leader.  He  is  original — of  very  peculiar  ideas,  and 
perfectly  fearless  and  independent  in  expressing  and 
maintaining  them.  He  is  remarkable  for  his  affa- 
bility to  young  persons;  and  surrounded  by  them, 
at  his  own  table,  he  can  be  as  hilarious  and  happy 
as  the  gayest  of  them.  For  one  service,  at  least, 
his  country  owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude.  I  refer 
to  the  fine  illustration  which  he  offered  of  the  true 
character  of  our  institutions,  when  he  passed  from 
the  Presidential  palace  to  his  present  post  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Though  the 
position  which  he  has  there  made  his  own,  may  not 
be  that  which  his  friends  might  wish  to  see  him  oc- 
cupy in  that  body,  yet  in  every  point  of  view  the 
example  was  a  fine  one. 

"His  manner  of  speaking  is  peculiar;  he  rises 
abruptly,  his  face  reddens,  and  in  a  moment  throw- 
ing himself  into  the  attitude  of  a  veteran  gladiator, 
he  prepares  for  the  attack;  then  he  becomes  full 
18 


274    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

of  gesticulation,  his  body  sways  to  and  fro, — self- 
command  seems  almost  lost, — his  head  is  bent  for- 
ward in  his  earnestness  till  it  sometimes  nearly 
touches  the  desk;  his  voice  frequently  breaks,  but 
he  pursues  his  subject  through  all  its  bearings;  noth- 
ing daunts  him — the  House  may  ring  with  the  cries 
of  order! — order! — unmoved,  contemptuous,  he 
stands  amid  the  tempest,  and  like  an  oak  that  knows 
its  gnarled  and  knotted  strength,  stretches  his  arm 
forth  and  defies  the  blast." 

One  of  the  delegates  from  the  territory  of  Ar- 
kansas was  Ambrose  H.  Sevier,  who  possessed  much 
of  the  talents  of  his  uncle,  John  Sevier,  the  celebrated 
Indian  fighter,  who  had  moved  from  his  birthplace 
in  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  in  early  life  to 
the  Watauga  region  of  North  Carolina,  and  had 
founded  there  the  State  of  Franklin.  Ambrose 
Sevier  was  a  territorial  delegate  to  Congress  for  a 
number  of  years;  and  was  elected  Senator  in  1836. 
He  remained  in  the  Senate  till  1848;  and  in  that 
year  was  a  member  of  the  commission  to  make  peace 
with  Mexico. 

Perhaps  the  most  picturesque  and  spectacular  of 
the  Virginians  who  served  with  Gordon,  as  he  was 
among  the  ablest  and  most  distinguished,  was  Henry 
A.  Wise.  Wise's  first  term  was  Gordon's  last, 
namely  that  of  the  23d  Congress,  which  convened  in 
December,  1833,  and  ended  in  March,  1835.  "Of 
the  members  of  this  Congress,"  says  Parton,  "five 
have  been  President;  five,  Vice-President;  eight, 
Secretary  of  State;  twenty-five,  Governor  of  a 
State."  The  same  story  is  told  of  Wise,  who  was 
just  twenty-seven  years  old  when  he  entered  the 
House  of  Representatives,  as  is  related  of  Randolph 
of  Roanoke,  under  like  circumstances.  "Where  is 
Mr.  Wise?"  asked  Speaker  Stevenson,  when  John 
Y.  Mason  of  Virginia  presented  his  boyish-looking 
colleague  to  take  the  oath.  The  Speaker  had  taken 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     275 

the  young  member  for  one  of  the  pages  of  the  House. 
"How  old  are  you,  Mr.  Randolph?"  the  same  offi- 
cial had  queried  of  Randolph  three  decades  earlier. 
"Ask  my  constituents,  sir,"  responded  the  shrill 
voice,  which  he,  who  once  heard  it,  is  said  never  to 
have  forgotten. 

Henry  A.  Wise  was  an  orator  of  brilliant  powers, 
a  politician  of  commanding  ability,  and  of  the  most 
daring  and  adventurous  courage,  a  statesman  of 
great  foresight,  and  an  executive  of  such  firm- 
ness and  decision  of  character  as  were  not 
exceeded  by  any  of  his  contemporaries.  He 
left  Jackson  on  the  Bank  question,  joining 
the  so-called  Whig  aggregation;  and  served 
two  additional  terms  in  Congress.  He  was  the  sec- 
ond of  Graves  in  the  famous  duel  in  which  the  latter 
killed  Cilley,  an  unfortunate  episode  for  which  Wise 
was  unjustly  held  to  blame  by  many;  and  was  char- 
acterized by  John  Quincy  Adams,  between  whom 
and  himself  there  were  frequent  intellectual  colli- 
sions on  the  floor  of  the  House,  as  "coming  into  the 
House  of  Representatives  with  his  hands  dripping 
with  blood." 

President  Tyler  nominated  Wise  as  Minister  to 
France;  but  the  Senate  refused  to  confirm  the  ap- 
pointment. He  then  became  Minister  to  Brazil, 
where  he  remained  from  May,  1844,  to  October, 
1847.  He  was  nominated  for  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia by  the  Democratic  party  in  1855,  and  after 
conducting  the  most  remarkable  canvass  against  the 
"Know  Nothing,"  or  American  party,  which  had  up 
to  that  time  ever  occurred  in  the  Commonwealth, 
was  triumphantly  elected.  His  term  had  not  quite 
expired  when  the  John  Brown  raid  took  place;  and 
the  execution  of  Brown  on  the  2d  of  December, 
1859,  was  among  the  last  notable  events  of  his  ad- 
ministration. He  was  a  member  of  the  Secession 
Convention  of  Virginia,  and  a  brigadier-general  in 
the  Confederate  Army.  In  his  later  years  he  pub- 


276     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

lished  "Seven  Decades  of  the  Union;  a  narrative 
of  political  history,  especially  with  relation  to  the 
life  and  political  career  of  President  Tyler." 

The  same  contemporary  pen,  which  gave  the  de- 
scription of  Mr.  Adams,  above  quoted,  wrote  of 
Wise  at  this  time : 

"He  is  remarkably  quick  in  arriving  at  conclu- 
sions, and  generally,  too,  in  a  way  that  would  not 
have  been  struck  upon  by  any  one  else.  He  has  un- 
doubtedly very  high  talents,  and  I  have  heard  him, 
upon  more  than  one  occasion,  soar  into  the  regions 
of  commanding  eloquence.  His  forte  lies  in  invec- 
tive; then  he  becomes,  to  those  whose  party  sympa- 
thies follow  his  own  excited  train  of  feeling,  thril- 
ling; his  pale  and  excited  face,  his  firm  and  com- 
pact head  thrown  back,  his  small  bony  hand  clenched 
in  the  air,  or  with  the  forefinger  quivering,  as  if  all 
the  passion  of  the  orator  was  concentrated  there, 
his  eyes  brilliant  and  fixed,  his  voice  high  yet  sonor- 
ous, impress  a  picture  too  vivid  to  be  easily  erased 
from  the  mind." 

Gordon  greatly  admired  Mr.  Wise,  an,d  was 
warmly  attached  to  him.  On  one  occasion  when 
Wise's  attitude  on  some  public  question  was  not  so 
pleasing  to  Gordon  as  had  been  the  former's  vote 
for  the  Sub-Treasury  amendment  in  1835,  Gordon 
said  to  him,  half-provoked  and  half-amused : 

"Wise,  you  have  a  brave  and  generous  heart,  but 
a  singularly  perverted  intellect!" 

"General,"  responded  Wise,  with  great  good 
humor,  "you  are  entirely  mistaken.  I  have  a  very 
able  and  direct  intellect,  but  sometimes  a  singularly 
perverted  heart!" 

Another  distinguished  Virginian,  who  was  in  Con- 
gress during  Gordon's  membership,  was  John  Y. 
Mason.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  General  As- 
sembly and  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1829- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     277 

1830,  in  both  of  which  bodies  he  evinced  ability. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Af- 
fairs during  his  service  in  the  House,  and  later  be- 
came a  Federal  Judge  of  the  District  Court,  and 
afterwards  a  State  Judge  in  Virginia.  He  was  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy  under  Tyler,  succeeding  Governor 
Gilmer;  and  Attorney-General,  and  again  Naval 
Secretary  under  Polk.  He  was  President  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Constitutional  Convention  of  1850,  and  Min- 
ister to  France  from  1853  to  1859.  He  died  in 
Paris  in  the  last  named  year. 

Of  the  thirty-two  votes  recorded  in  favor  of  Gor- 
don's amendment  to  the  Bank  Deposit  Bill,  estab- 
lishing an  Independent  or  Sub-Treasury,  he  had  the 
gratification  of  seeing  one  third,  including  his  own, 
cast  by  members  of  the  Virginia  delegation. 

The  Virginians  who  supported  the  Sub-Treasury 
plan  were  John  J.  Allen,  William  S.  Archer,  James 
M.  H.  Beale,  Nathaniel  H.  Claiborne,  Thomas 
Davenport,  James  H.  Gholson,  William  McComas, 
John  Robertson,  William  P.  Taylor  and  Henry  A. 
Wise.  It  was  a  support  of  which  the  author  of 
the  measure  might  well  be  proud;  for  these  men 
represented  no  small  portion  of  the  best  and  ablest 
public  thought,  character  and  position  in  the  Vir- 
ginia of  their  day.  John  J.  Allen  became  a  distin- 
guished member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals 
of  Virginia,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  strongest 
lawyers  of  his  time.  William  S.  Archer  had  a  long 
and  honorable  political  career,  that  has  been  briefly 
narrated  in  a  previous  chapter. 

Benton  mentions  him  in  the  "long  catalogue  of 
able  speakers"  in  the  House,  in  the  ranks  of  the 
opposition  to  President  Jackson, — a  political  array 
against  the  President,  which  the  Missourian  charac- 
terizes as  "unprecedented  in  point  of  number  and 
great  in  point  of  ability,"  and  among  whom  he 
names  ex- President  Adams,  the  eminent  jurist,  Horace 
Binney  of  Pennsylvania;  Bell  of  Tennessee,  later  a 


278     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

candidate  with  Mr.  Everett  of  Massachusetts  on 
the  Whig  Presidential  ticket  in  the  momentous  cam- 
paign of  1860;  Rufus  Choate  of  Massachusetts,  re- 
garded by  many  as  the  most  gifted  and  brilliant 
speaker  of  his  day  at  the  New  England  bar;  Tom 
Corwin  of  Ohio,  wit,  orator,  lawyer  and  raconteur, 
of  whom  his  colleague,  Choate,  once  said,  "He  could 
fill  the  cup  of  your  eyes  with  tears  in  a  single  sen- 
tence;" Warren  R.  Davis  of  South  Carolina;  Ed- 
ward Everett  of  Massachusetts,  scholar  and  rheto- 
rician; Millard  Fllmore  of  New  York,  urbane,  pol- 
ished, suave,  later  a  President  of  the  United  States; 
Benjamin  Hardin  of  Kentucky,  whom  John  Ran- 
dolph of  Roanoke  described  as  "a  carving  knife 
whetted  on  a  brickbat,"  and  of  whom  a  contemporary 
writer  in  the  Democratic  Review  said:  "Hardin 
was  a  most  provoking  and  annoying  enemy, — 
with  his  deformed  finger,  crooked  like  an  au- 
dacious note  of  interrogation, — his  livid  face, 
peering  with  a  sneering  expression  into  that  of 
his  adversary, — his  seeming  arrogant  tone  of 
voice — his  left  hand  thrust  country  lawyer-like, 
with  due  elegance  and  grace,  into  his  breeches 
pocket — altogether  he  was  enough  to  worry 
the  most  resigned;"  George  McDuffie  of  South 
Carolina,  the  great  opponent  of  the  tariff  and  ex- 
ponent of  nullification;  Balie  Peyton  of  Tennessee, 
distinguished  in  three  States  as  lawyer,  rhetorician 
and  politician;  and  Richard  Henry  Wilde  of  Geor- 
gia, scholar,  orator  and  poet.  Mr.  Archer  met  with 
the  fate  of  many  of  Jackson's  political  opponents, 
and  returned  to  private  life  in  1835;  but  in  1841 
he  was,  as  heretofore  related,  elected  from  Virginia 
to  the  United  States  Senate,  where  he  served  a  term, 
and  in  which  body  he  was  chairman  of  the  Foreign 
Relations  Committee. 

James  M.  H.  Beale,  another  supporter  of  the  In- 
dependent Treasury  scheme,  a  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  prominent  Virginia  family  of  that  name, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     279 

served  in  Congress  from  1833  to  1837.  Nathaniel 
H.  Claiborne  was  for  a  number  of  years  a  member 
of  the  General  Assembly  in  both  the  Senate  and  the 
House  of  Delegates,  where  he  achieved  distinction 
as  a  "watch-dog  of  the  treasury,"  and  was  after- 
wards from  1825  to  1835  a  representative  in  Con- 
gress. He  possessed  a  literary  bent,  and  published 
in  1819  a  volume  entitled  "Notes  on  the  War  in  the 
South."  Thomas  Davenport  was  a  member  of  the 
House  from  1825  to  1835.  James  H.  Gholson  was 
a  Congressman  from  1833  to  1835,  an  extreme 
State-Rights  strict  constructionist,  and  in  1850  a 
delegate  with  Gordon  to  the  Southern  Convention 
at  Nashville.  William  McComas  served  two  terms 
in  the  House,  from  1833  to  1837.  John  Robertson, 
sprung  from  the  Indian  Princess  Pocahontas,  was  a 
Circuit  Judge  and  Attorney-General  of  Virginia,  and 
a  congressman  from  1834  to  1839.  "In  Congress 
his  abilities  were  highly  estimated.  By  his  friends 
he  was  called  a  stickler  for  the  Constitution,  so  strict 
was  his  loyalty  to  it;  and  an  illustrative  story  was 
invented  on  him  by  his  witty  and  waggish  friend, 
Waddy  Thompson  of  South  Carolina,  that  once 
being  in  Washington,  and  supposed  about  to  die,  he 
begged  him  as  his  last  request  not  to  allow  him  to 
be  buried  at  public  expense,  for  he  thought  it  would 
be  clearly  unconstitutional."  Judge  Robertson  pos- 
sessed literary  talents  of  no  insignificant  order;  and 
was  the  author,  among  other  works,  of  a  tragedy 
entitled,  "Riego,  the  Spanish  Martyr."  William  P. 
Taylor  was  a  member  of  the  House  for  one  term 
from  1833  to  1835.  Governor  Henry  A.  Wise, 
the  eleventh  voter  in  the  delegation  for  the  Sub- 
Treasury  amendment,  has  been  described  above  in 
this  chapter. 

Of  the  other  Virginia  representatives,  those  who 
stood  by  the  Administration,  and  voted  against  the 
Sub-Treasury  amendment,  were  Thomas  T.  Bouldin, 
Joseph  W.  Chinn,  John  H.  Fulton,  George  Loyall, 


280    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Edward  Lucas,  John  Y.  Mason,  Charles  Fenton 
Mercer,  Samuel  McDowell  Moore,  John  Mercer 
Patton,  Andrew  Stevenson,  the  Speaker,  and  Edgar 
C.  Wilson.  The  most  prominent  of  these  were 
George  Loyall,  Gordon's  personal  intimate  and 
friend,  who  remained  throughout  this  period  of  poli- 
tical change  and  tumult  an  unwavering  adherent  of 
Jackson's;  John  Y.  Mason,  Charles  Fenton  Mercer, 
Samuel  McDowell  Moore,  John  Mercer  Patton 
and  Mr.  Speaker  Stevenson. 

All  of  these  last  named  public  men  have  been 
dealt  with  at  more  or  less  length  in  this  volume  ex- 
cept Mr.  Patton,  who  was  one  of  the  most  notable 
figures  of  the  period  in  his  State.  He  began  his 
career  in  life  as  a  physician,  but  subsequently  studied 
law.  Taking  up  the  practice  of  his  profession  at 
Fredericksburg,  his  talents  brought  him  rapidly  to 
the  front.  He  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives from  1830  to  1838,  when  he  resigned, 
in  order  to  continue  the  practice  of  law,  in  which 
he  achieved  a  distinguished  eminence. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

SPEECHES   AND  DEBATES    IN    CONGRESS THE   JUDI- 
CIARY ACT — THE  BILL  TO  REMOVE  WASH- 
INGTON'S  BODY ADDRESS  TO  CON- 
STITUENTS— TYLER'S  LETTER 

Though  Gordon  was  not  a  frequent  speaker  on 
the  floor  of  the  House,  yet  the  reports  of  the  de- 
bates contain  his  speeches  upon  various  questions. 
In  the  session  of  1832-33  he  discussed  the  question 
of  Nullification;  and  in  the  course  of  his  speech  he 
said  that  he  thought  that  "the  wisest  mode  of  re- 
sistance to  the  spirit  now  prevailing  in  South  Caro- 
lina was  to  meet  it  by  a  spirit  of  conciliation;  to 
meet  the  crisis  arising  from  the  oppression  of  the  gov- 
ernment by  showing  a  disposition  to  relieve  it."  In 
another  speech  on  the  same  subject  he  deprecated 
the  employment  by  the  Administration  of  force 
against  South  Carolina. 

During  the  session  of  1833-34,  in  addition  to 
speaking  in  support  of  the  Virginia  Resolutions  con- 
demning the  removal  of  the  deposits,  he  took  part 
in  the  debate  on  the  bank  deposit  bill  in  connection 
with  his  amendment;  and  in  that  of  1834-35  he 
discussed  the  same  bill,  in  the  debate  which  involved 
again  the  merits  of  his  Sub-Treasury  scheme. 

One  of  his  earliest  speeches  in  the  House  was  upon 
the  bill  to  repeal  the  twenty-fifth  section  of  the  Ju- 
diciary Act  of  1789,  by  which  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  was  empowered  to  pass  upon  the 
constitutionality  of  State  laws.  The  House  Judi- 
ciary Committee,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  re- 
ported on  the  25th  of  January,  1831,  in  favor  of 
the  repeal  of  the  twenty-fifth  section  on  the  ground 
of  its  unconstitutionality.  The  tenure  and  method 
of  appointment  of  the  Federal  judges  had  always 


282    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

been  objectionable  to  Mr.  Jefferson  and  the  State- 
Rights  Democrats;  and  Jefferson  had  inveighed 
against  the  power  conferred  upon  the  Supreme  Court 
by  this  section,  in  his  first  inaugural,  in  which  he 
said: 

"I  do  not  forget  the  position  assumed  by  some 
that  constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by 
the  Supreme  Court,  not  do  I  deny  that  such  ques- 
tions must  be  binding  upon  the  parties  to  that  suit, 
while  they  are  also  entitled  to  very  high  respect  and 
consideration  in  all  parallel  cases  by  all  departments 
of  the  government.  But  if  the  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment upon  a  vital  question  affecting  the  whole  people 
is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  the  decisions  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  the  moment  they  are  made,  the  people 
will  have  ceased  to  be  their  own  masters;  having 
to  that  extent  resigned  the  government  into  the  hands 
of  that  eminent  tribunal." 

There  was  not  only  a  majority,  but  a  minority  re- 
port from  the  Judiciary  Committee,  the  latter  being 
prepared  and  presented  by  James  Buchanan,  after- 
wards President.  Upon  the  coming  in  of  these  re- 
ports to  the  House,  Gordon  engaged  in  the  discus- 
sion which  ensued,  and  actively  supported  the  ma- 
jority report.  Phillip  Doddridge,  of  Virginia,  ex- 
pressed the  opinion,  in  the  progress  of  the  debate, 
that  the  repeal  of  the  twenty-fifth  section  of  the 
Judiciary  Act  was  "equivalent  to  a  motion  to  dis- 
solve the  Union."  To  this  Gordon  replied: 

"As  to  the  constitutionality  of  the  twenty-fifth 
section  of  the  Judiciary  Act,  has  it  not  been  mooted 
frequently?  It  was  neither  a  new  question,  nor  an 
alarming  one.  Could  it  be  new,  especially  to  a  Vir- 
ginia lawyer?  Did  the  gentleman  not  know  that 
the  Virginia  Judiciary,  with  Roane  at  its  head,  had 
solemnly  denied  the  constitutionality  of  that  section? 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     283 

Did  he  not  also  know  that  many  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  State,  including  John  Taylor  of  Caroline,  had 
contended  that  the  section  was  unconstitutional?  Did 
not  Georgia,  the  other  day,  by  her  legislature  deny 
the  constitutionality  of  the  act,  and  order  the  execu- 
tive, with  all  his  powers,  to  repel  its  enforcement  on 
her?  Had  not  Pennsylvania  too  declared  it  uncon- 
stitutional, and  resisted  its  execution?" 

Continuing  his  argument,  he  alluded  to  the  famous 
case  of  Cohens  vs.  Virginia,  in  which  the  State  of 
Virginia  had  been  made  a  party  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  where  the  case  was  de- 
cided ten  years  before,  and  had  employed  distin- 
guished counsel  to  argue  the  unconstitutionality  of 
the  authority  claimed  by  the  Court. 

The  repeal-bill,  however,  was  defeated  by  a  vote 
of  137  to  51;  though  among  the  minority  were 
some  of  the  leading  administrationists. 

"Since  the  case  of  Cohens  vs.  Virginia"  wrote 
John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Brock- 
enbrough,  "I  am  done  with  the  Supreme  Court!" 

The  twenty-fifth  section  of  the  Judiciary  Act  of 
1789  gave  a  right  of  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  from  a  final  judgment  of  a 
State  court  on  what  are  now  known  as  "federal  ques- 
tions." In  February,  1821,  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
in  his  opinion  in  Cohens  vs.  Virginia,  upheld  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  Twenty-fifth  section  of  the  Judi- 
ciary Act,  and  enunciated  and  illustrated  for  the  first 
time  in  American  jurisprudence  the  "supreme  law" 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  with  its  legitimate  con- 
clusions. The  doctrines  of  federalism  contained  in 
this  opinion,  and  in  the  bank  cases  of  McCidloch 
vs.  Maryland,  in  February,  1819,  and  Osborne  vs. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  in  1824,  had  caused 
a  flame  of  opposition  to  burst  forth,  whose  fires  were 
still  burning.  They  seemed  to  justify  Randolph's 
famous  remark  about  seeing,  when  a  youth,  the  first 


284    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

President  take  the  oath  to  support  the  Constitution, 
and  how  two  men  in  Virginia,  George  Mason  and 
Patrick  Henry,  beheld  what  Washington  did  not  see, 
"the  poison  under  its  wings  !" 

The  doctrines  set  out  in  these  opinions  were  ably 
controverted  by  Judge  Spencer  Roane,  who  married 
Patrick  Henry's  daughter,  in  a  series  of  powerful 
articles  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  from  May  10  to 
July  13,  1821,  over  the  signature  of  "Algernon  Sid- 
ney." 

"Organized  opposition  to  them,"  says  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Johnston,  "in  several  States  was  only  checked 
by  the  overshadowing  importance  of  the  Missouri 
question." 

Three  days  after  the  coming  in  of  the  majority 
and  minority  reports  on  the  repeal  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  section  of  the  Judiciary  Act,  Gordon  voted  in 
favor  of  the  consideration  of  a  resolution  offered 
by  Mr.  Joseph  LeCompte  of  Kentucky,  directing 
the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  to  inquire  as 
to  "the  expediency  of  amending  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  so  that  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  of  the  inferior  courts  shall  hold  their 
offices  for  a  limited  term  of  years."  The  House 
refused  to  consider  the  resolution  by  a  vote  of  1 1 6 
to  60. 

On  the  i3th  of  February,  1832,  Gordon  made  a 
characteristic  argument  against  the  proposal  then 
pending  to  remove  the  body  of  George  Washington 
from  Mount  Vernon,  and  deposit  it  under  the  dome 
of  the  Capitol,  where  the  crypt  prepared  for  it  still 
remains  unoccupied,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  hun- 
dred years. 

In  1816  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  had, 
by  resolutions  unanimously  adopted,  requested  in  the 
name  of  the  State  that  Washington's  body  might 
be  removed  from  Mount  Vernon,  and  interred  near 
the  State  Capitol,  beneath  a  monument  to  be  erected 
at  public  expense,  "to  serve  as  a  memorial  to  future 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     285 

ages  of  the  love  of  a  grateful  people."  The  family 
of  the  President,  however,  declined  the  request. 

In  February,  1832,  it  was  determined  by  Congress 
to  celebrate  with  great  ceremony  the  centennial  anni- 
versary of  Washington's  birth  on  the  22d  of  that 
month;  and  the  resolution  provided  further  "that 
the  President  be  requested  to  superintend  the  deposit 
of  the  remains  of  the  deceased  in  the  place  which  has 
been  selected  for  that  purpose." 

At  the  same  time,  a  resolution  was  adopted  for 
placing  the  body  of  Mrs.  Washington  in  the  same 
receptacle  with  that  of  her  husband;  and  Mr.  Cal- 
houn,  as  Vice-President,  and  President  of  the  Senate, 
and  Mr.  Stevenson  as  Speaker  of  the  House,  commu- 
nicated to  Mr.  John  A.  Washington,  the  grand- 
nephew  of  Washington  and  the  owner  of  Mount 
Vernon,  the  application  of  Congress  for  permission 
to  remove  and  deposit  the  body  of  Washington  in 
the  National  Capitol,  "in  conformity  with  the  reso- 
lution of  Congress  of  the  24th  of  December,  1799;" 
and  its  request  for  a  like  disposition  of  the  body  of 
Mrs.  Washington,  who  had,  on  December  31,  1799, 
consented  to  the  execution  of  the  last  named  resolu- 
tion, in  a  letter  addressed  to  President  Adams.  A 
similar  request  was  made  of  Mr.  G.  W.  P.  Custis, 
in  relation  to  the  body  of  Mrs.  Washington. 

Mr.  Custis  consented;  but  Mr.  Washington  de- 
clined to  accede  to  the  removal,  on  the  ground  that 
General  Washington's  will,  "in  respect  to  the  dis- 
position of  his  remains,  has  been  recently  carried 
into  full  effect,  and  they  now  repose  in  perfect  tran- 
quility,  surrounded  by  those  of  other  endeared  mem- 
bers of  the  family." 

Gordon's  speech,  made  before  the  letter  of  Mr. 
Washington  was  written,  appears  as  follows  in  Ben- 
ton's  "Abridged  Debates:" 

"Mr.  Gordon  of  Virginia  expressed  his  deep  re- 
gret that  on  an  occasion  like  this  there  should  be 


286    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

any  division  of  sentiment  amongst  those  who  were 
called  to  celebrate  the  birthday  of  the  most  illus- 
trious of  our  citizens,  and  he  could  not  but  think 
that  there  would  have  been  a  unanimity  more  worthy 
of  the  occasion,  had  not  the  select  committee  thought 
proper  to  introduce  a  resolution,  calculated  in  its 
very  nature  to  produce  division.  The  question  it 
involved  had  from  the  beginning  been  an  exciting 
and  a  dividing  question.  General  Washington  had 
died  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  after  a  long  life, 
glorious  to  himself,  to  his  country,  and  to  man- 
kind. He  had  been  buried  upon  his  own  estate 
amidst  his  own  connections,  by  his  family  and  his 
neighbors;  and  what  was  now  proposed  to  be  done? 
To  violate  the  sanctity  of  the  grave;  to  take  his 
bones  from  their  honored  deposit,  and  translate  them 
to  another  spot. 

"Mr.  Gordon  said  he  knew  it  had  been  common, 
when  our  heroes  had  perished  in  foreign  lands,  to 
redeem  their  bones  by  a  national  act  from  the  es- 
trangement into  which  they  had  been  accidentally 
thrown.  But  he  suspected  that  the  present  was  the 
first  instance,  when  it  had  been  proposed  or  was 
thought  of,  to  take  their  remains  from  the  home 
of  the  deceased  and  from  their  native  soil.  And 
for  what?  For  a  monument  to  his  memory?  Had 
it  not  been  once  said  of  an  illustrious  foreigner  that 
'all  Florence  was  his  monument'?  And  might  it 
not,  with  equal  truth  and  force  be  asked,  is  not  this 
city  a  monument  to  Washington?  Nay,  we  might 
ask,  was  not  the  entire  country  his  monument,  and 
her  liberty  and  happiness  his  best  and  noblest  memo- 
rial? He  must  disagree  with  one  of  his  colleagues 
(Mr.  Mercer)  in  the  sentiment  that  the  removal  of 
the  ex-animated  bones  of  the  patriot  would  have  any 
great  efficiency  towards  cementing  the  Union  of  the 
States.  The  way  to  cement  the  Union  was  to  imi- 
tate the  virtues  of  Washington,  to  remove  not  his 
body,  but  if  possible  to  transfer  his  spirit  to  these 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     287 

halls.  Gentlemen  could  not  suppose  that  the  mere 
removal  of  his  dust  would  infuse  into  men's  breasts 
any  higher  veneration  for  his  virtues.  Let  it  rather 
be  their  part,  instead  of  disturbing  his  bones,  each 
to  go  to  the  altar  of  his  country  and  swear  to  imitate 
the  example  of  Washington. 

"He  said  there  was  another  aspect  of  the  subject, 
which  he  was  sorry  to  advert  to,  yet  as  a  Virginian 
he  could  not,  for  his  soul,  repress.  Congress  had 
no  right  to  remove  that  dust.  Washington  had 
given  his  life  to  the  United  States,  and  Virginia  re- 
joiced to  remember  it.  But  his  bones  belonged  to 
her  soil.  Her  sons  honored  the  spot  where  they  re- 
posed ;  and  they  thought  that  that  was  a  spot,  where, 
if  anywhere,  union  and  peace  should  ever  dwell.  The 
act  proposed  in  the  resolution  was  but  a  vulgar  honor. 
It  degraded  Washington  to  the  measure  of  little  men, 
who  needed  monuments  to  preserve  their  names. 
Since  the  art  of  printing  had  been  invented,  pillars 
and  monuments  were  but  idle  records.  Letters  were 
the  best,  the  enduring  monuments.  They  held  the 
name  and  the  deeds  of  Washington,  and  would  hold 
them  forever;  and  it  was  vain  to  attempt  by  an 
empty  pageant,  unchristian  in  its  character  and 
every  way  in  bad  taste,  to  add  anything  to  Washing- 
ton's immortality.  Such  a  celebration  would  be  sure 
to  dissatisfy  the  people  of  his  native  State.  In  a 
great  association  of  republics,  such  as  ours,  the  best 
and  fairest  competition  is  this:  who  should  furnish 
citizens  most  devoted  to  their  country?  Who  should 
be  farthest  from  that  selfishness  which  degrades  a 
patriot?  Let  such  be  our  emulation,  and  let  the 
virtues  of  Washington  be  set  before  us  as  our  model. 
If  we  practise  these,  then  will  our  Union  be  im- 
mortal. But  let  not  the  House,  by  separating  the 
remains  of  Washington  from  his  own  beloved  State, 
and  making  them  an  object  of  the  vulgar  gaze,  seek 
to  gratify  men  who  could  never  be  moved  by  a  con- 
sideration of  his  great  example." 


288     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

A  week  later,  on  February  20,  1832,  the  General 
Assembly  of  Virginia  unanimously  adopted  resolu- 
tions earnestly  requesting  the  proprietor  of  Mount 
Vernon,  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  the  Common- 
wealth, not  to  permit  the  body  to  be  removed  to 
Washington. 

In  a  later  year  Gordon  said  in  a  letter  to  his  wife, 
written  on  an  April  day: 

"On  Saturday  I  visited  for  the  first  time  Mount 
Vernon,  and  lingered  some  time  at  the  tomb  of 
Washington.  I  felt  strange  emotions;  and,  in  spite 
of  me,  a  tear  started  to  my  eyes,  as  my  mind  glanced 
over  the  past  and  the  present.  It  is  a  beautiful  spot, 
worthy  to  contain  the  remains  of  the  first  man  of 
America." 

Gordon's  severance  of  party  ties  had  brought 
upon  him  the  hostility  in  his  district  which  Jackson 
systematically  fomented  against  those  who  had  been 
Democrats  and  had  antagonized  him;  and  which 
proved  conspiciously  effective  in  the  cases  of  Richard 
Henry  Wilde  and  of  Crockett.  In  May,  1834,  with 
the  congressional  elections  approaching,  he  wrote 
from  Washington  to  Mrs.  Gordon : 

"In  regard  to  the  movement  in  my  district  I  am 
very  indifferent  personally.  Whenever  the  people 
think  I  have  abandoned  their  interests,  or  that  they 
can  be  more  ably  represented,  I  am  willing  to  retire." 

The  movement  referred  to  was  one  to  elect  his 
neighbor,  Mr.  William  C.  Rives,  then  temporarily  in 
political  retirement,  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives from  the  district,  in  Gordon's  place.  Mr.  Rives 
had  a  short  time  before  resigned  from  the  United 
States  Senate,  because  of  his  unwillingness  to  support 
the  Senate's  vote  of  censure  of  the  President  for  re- 
moving the  deposits — a  measure  which  Mr.  Rives  ap- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     289 

proved,  but  which  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia 
highly  reprobated,  as  indicated  in  the  resolutions  pre- 
sented to  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Gordon. 

"I  have  never  been  in  the  way  of  Mr.  Rives," 
continued  the  latter,  in  the  intimacy  of  the  last-quoted 
letter  to  his  wife:  "I  have  been  content  to  see  him 
wear  the  highest  honors  of  the  country,  without 
rivalry  and  without  envy.  I  have  asked  nothing  for 
myself;  I  have  sought  no  office;  I  have  no  aspirations 
beyond  the  wishes  of  my  constituents." 

Mr.  Rives  was  elected  by  the  General  Assembly, 
whose  political  character  had  changed,  to  his  former 
position  in  the  United  States  Senate;  and  the  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy  of  the  district  nominated  Mr. 
James  Garland  as  Gordon's  successor. 

On  the  2Oth  of  August,  1834,  Gordon  addressed 
the  following  letter  to  his  constituents  of  Amherst 
County,  as  an  account  of  his  stewardship  given  to 
the  whole  district : 

"Amherst  C.  H.,  2Oth  August,  1834. 
"Gentlemen: 

"Be  pleased  to  accept  for  yourselves,  and  for  my 
fellow-citizens  of  Amherst,  my  sincerest  thanks  for 
the  welcome  you  have  given  me  to  your  liberal  and 
patriotic  county,  and  for  the  generous  sentiments 
of  approbation  with  which  you  have  cheered  my 
humble  services,  as  your  representative  in  the  late 
session  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

"A  free  constitution  is  the  birthright  of  every 
Virginian;  and  ere  we  cease  to  defend  it,  and  the 
sacred  rights  which  it  sustains  and  consecrates,  we 
must  forget  the  glories  of  our  history,  and  degen- 
erate into  ignoble  descendants  of  the  immortal  men, 
who  in  the  vanguard  of  freedom  achieved  our  liber- 
ties, and  transmitted  them  to  us,  guarded  by  free 
constitutions. 

"The  crisis  in  our  affairs  is  portentous.     The  ad- 
19 


29o    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

ministration  of  the  Federal  Government  has  been 
characterized  by  extraordinary  assertions  of  authority 
on  the  part  of  that  Government.  The  President  of 
the  United  States  has  greatly  misapprehended  the 
true  history  and  intent  of  our  Constitutions,  both 
State  and  Federal.  In  the  unexpected  and  strange 
proclamation,  which  he  issued  after  his  second  elec- 
tion to  the  Presidency,  the  States  were  consolidated 
into  a  mass,  their  sovereignty  denied,  the  limitations 
on  Federal  authority  obliterated,  and  the  rights  of 
the  States  and  the  people,  under  express  reserva- 
tions, were  cancelled  and  denied.  The  degrading 
epithet  of  traitor  to  his  country  was  affixed  to  the 
names  of  those  who  owned  allegiance  to  the  sov- 
ereignty, and  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  States 
which  gave  them  birth.  A  bill  known  as  the  Force 
Bill  embodied  the  principles  of  this  proclamation  into 
an  unconstitutional  law.  The  army,  the  navy,  the 
militia,  the  treasury,  were  yielded  by  Congress  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  as  a  substitute 
for  the  courts  of  law.  Trials  of  our  citizens  in  the 
Federal  Courts  were  authorized,  in  derogation  of 
the  rightful  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunals  of  the  State. 
The  civil  constitutions  were  buried  with  military 
honors  by  the  representatives  of  the  people  and  the 
States;  the  President  of  the  United  States  made 
the  sole  monarch  of  the  concentrated  powers  of  the 
whole  system;  the  glorious  stars  of  your  twenty- 
four  sovereign  and  independent  States  struck  from  the 
brilliant  flag  of  the  Union,  and  the  stripes  of  gloomy 
despotism  waved  in  melancholy  triumph  over  the 
darkened  liberties  of  the  Confederacy. 

"When  we  give  power,  we  know  not  what  we 
give.  The  appetite  for  it  can  never  be  satisfied. 
The  last  session  of  our  Federal  legislature  was  dis- 
tinguished by  new,  and  to  a  large  portion  of  the 
people  of  the  Confederacy,  still  more  alarming  as- 
sertions and  exertions  of  power.  Not  content  with 
having  repealed  the  Constitution  by  proclamation, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     291 

and  obliterating  the  rights  of  the  States,  the  Presi- 
dent claims  for  the  Executive  Department  of  the 
Federal  Government  the  powers  of  all  the  depart- 
ments of  that  government.  Sixty  days  before  the 
meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and  of 
the  States,  in  Congress,  he  caused  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility the  revenue  of  the  United  States  to  be 
removed  from  the  deposit  in  the  United  States  Bank 
prescribed  by  law,  and  placed  it  in  various  State 
banks,  under  regulations  and  stipulations  prescribed 
by  executive  authority,  and  not  sanctioned  by  the 
law  of  the  land.  He  adjudged  that  the  Bank  was 
unconstitutional  and  had  violated  its  charter.  He 
inflicted  a  penalty  for  that  violation,  and  made  a 
system  of  executive  legislation  for  the  revenues  of 
the  country. 

"We  hold  it  as  a  great  element  of  civil  liberty 
that  an  executive  chief  magistrate  can  have  no  right- 
ful authority  to  touch,  or  in  any  manner  to  control, 
the  revenues  of  the  people.  Liberty  cannot  co-exist 
with  such  a  power.  Hence  our  own  Constitutions 
have  guarded  this  as  the  vital  principle  of  freedom, 
and  prescribed  the  mode  of  raising  and  collecting  the 
revenues  by  Congress,  and  provided  that  no  money 
can  be  drawn  from  the  treasury  without  an  appro- 
priation by  law. 

"The  President,  in  vindicating  this  power,  claims 
for  the  executive  still  other  new  and  alarming  powers 
and  responsibilities  by  virtue  of  his  power  to  re- 
move and  appoint  officers,  both  of  which  he  claims 
as  constitutional.  He  asserts  the  responsibility  of 
every  officer  to  him,  because  he  is  to  see  the  laws 
faithfully  executed;  he  interprets  the  discretion, 
which  the  law  confides  to  others,  by  his  supreme  will, 
and  acts  accordingly.  He  abuses  the  power  of  re- 
moval, to  effect  that,  which  if  done  directly,  would 
be  a  palpable  and  ruinous  usurpation  of  authority, 
and  stands  in  proud  defiance  of  the  clamors  of  the 
people  and  the  resolves  of  the  Senate. 


292     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"To  the  rapid  waves  of  this  whirlpool  of  power 
I  have  made  a  firm  but  ineffectual  resistance.  Noth- 
ing but  the  power  and  firmness  and  purity  of  the 
people  can  still  the  storm,  and  say  to  the  advancing 
tide,  'Thus  far  shall  you  go,  and  no  farther.' 

"Will  not  the  people  give  the  order?  Will  not 
Virginians — men  of  the  land  of  Henry  and  Mason 
and  Washington  and  Jefferson  awake,  arise,  and 
spurn  from  them  the  base  bribes  with  which  power 
and  patronage  may  tempt  them  to  the  surrender  of 
their  liberties,  and  the  sale  of  their  birthright  of 
freedom?  It  must  be  so.  We  cannot  be  slaves 
whilst  we  stand  on  the  graves  of  our  invaders,  and 
those  of  the  immortal  men  who  conquered  our  liber- 
ties, and  gave  us  our  peculiar  constitutions  of  free- 
dom. 

"I  see  in  the  spirit  and  patriotism  of  the  people 
of  Amherst  a  sure  pledge  that  they  can  never  sub- 
mit to  lawless  power.  Throwing  from  them  the 
distinctions  of  party,  unpledged  to  men,  and  looking 
only  to  their  country  and  to  liberty,  they  will  march 
in  unbroken  phalanx,  and  I  trust,  with  all  Virginia, 
till  lawless  authority  shall  be  rebuked,  and  the  in- 
dignant resistance  of  freemen  has  driven  back  these 
invasions  of  their  liberty. 

"For  the  kind  and  too  personal  approval  which 
your  friendship  has  made  of  my  character  and  ser- 
vices, I  can  only  assure  you  that  my  zeal  in  the  cause 
of  liberty  is  unabated;  and  that  the  approbation  of 
my  constituents  is  the  only  incentive  I  have  ever  had 
to  the  exertion  of  my  very  poor  abilities  in  the  cause 
of  our  common  country. 

"I  accept  your  invitation  to  a  public  dinner;  and 
mention  Friday  next  as  the  day  most  convenient  to 
meet  you. 

"With  sentiments  of  great  personal  regard,  I  am, 
gentlemen,  your  faithful  servant  and  fellow  citizen, 

"W.  F.  GORDON. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     293 

"To  Saml.  M.  Garland,  Jos.  K.  Irving,  W.  S.  Craw- 
ford, Wm.  H.  Garland,  H.  J.  Rose,  Addison 
Glascock,  Jas.  S.  Pendleton,  Chas.  B.  Claiborne, 
John  Thompson,  Jr.,  H.  T.  Brown,  J.  P.  Gar- 
land and  Champe  Carter,  Esquires." 

r 

President  Jackson  had  determined  to  dictate  to 
the  country  his  successor  in  the  Presidential  office, 
and  had  fixed  upon  Mr.  Martin  VanBuren,  of  New 
York,  as  the  man  of  his  choice.  This  was  regarded  as 
another  act  of  executive  usurpation  by  the  opponents 
of  the  administration.  Mr.  Tyler,  then  one  of  the 
Senators  from  Virginia,  suggested  Mr.  Tazewell  as 
the  strongest  man  with  whom  to  beat  VanBuren.  He 
wrote  to  Gordon  on  the  subject,  as  follows: 

"Gloucester,  Nov.  9th,  1834. 

"My  dear  General:  I  am  but  a  day  ago  from  the 
North,  where  I  left  the  advocates  of  Presidential 
power  shouting  their  loudest  huzzas  at  the  result  of 
the  New  York  election.  Will  you  believe  me  when 
I  declare  to  you  that  I  was  half  inclined  to  join 
them,  and  my  object  in  writing  to  you  is  to  tell  you 
the  reason.  My  visit  to  the  North  and  East  fully 
satisfied  me  that,  if  New  York  declared  against 
VanBuren,  Webster  would  at  once  be  proclaimed 
candidate  for  the  Presidency. 

"The  South  would  not  have  entertained  him,  and 
the  consequence  would  have  been  great  danger  to 
the  Union.  With  political  designs,  the  tariff  would 
have  been  revived,  and  the  slave-question  would 
probably  have  been  moved  in  relation  to  the  Dis- 
trict. At  all  events  we  should  either  (I  mean  the 
South)  have  been  thrown  into  the  arm  of  some  other 
Northern  or  Western  man,  or  the  contest  which 
would  have  arisen  would  have  exerted  a  feeling  of 
hostility  between  the  sections.  This  election  avoids 
these  contingencies.  Webster  is  driven  from  the 
field,  and  the  whole  North  is  in  a  state  of  despair. 


294    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"What  are  the  prospects  from  the  West?  Equally 
bad.  The  great  Middle  States  are  for  VanBuren — 
rely  upon  that.  Ohio  and  Kentucky  are  with  us, 
while  Indiana  and  Illinois  will  either  go  to  Van- 
Buren or  support  R.  M.  Johnson.  In  one  word, 
no  Bank  man  can  be  elected.  Every  day  will  go 
farther  and  farther  to  establish  this. 

"What  then  is  the  prospect  before  us?  Absolutely 
one  of  gloom,  unless  a  Southern  man  can  be  found 
who  will  unite  the  whole  South,  and  thereby  ensure 
to  himself  the  support  of  all  the  anti-VanBuren 
States.  I  say  all  the  opposition  States — and  I  say 
it  with  full  knowledge  that  these  States  everywhere 
will  now  rally  on  the  strongest  man.  Who  then  can 
unite  the  whole  South?  I  have  brought  myself 
to  think  that  Governor  Tazewell  is  that  very  man. 
Maryland  waits  but  a  nomination — perhaps  she  may 
move  in  advance  with  one  of  her  counties,  and  at  an 
early  day.  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  will 
rally  to  him  I  have  no  doubt;  Georgia  will  not 
forget  the  steady  and  able  advocate  of  her  rights, 
when  she  most  required  an  advocate;  while  Ala- 
bama and  Mississippi  will  recollect  that  he  is  the 
first  public  man  who  ever  proposed  a  reduction  in 
the  public  lands;  while  Virginia,  if  her  people  are 
wise,  will  and  ought  to  unite  upon  him  as  affording 
the  means  of  bringing  together  the  old  State-Rights 
party,  which  the  proclamation  separated. 

"What  say  you,  my  dear  sir,  to  these  specula- 
tions? I  am  sanguine  a  decided  move  is  all  that  is 
required.  The  North  and  East  are  panic-struck, 
and  all  men  avow  their  readiness  to  unite  on  any 
'gentleman.'  I  mentioned  Tazewell  to  a  Pennsyl- 
vanian,  Kentuckian,  and  Marylander.  They 
snatched  at  the  suggestion.  I  should  not  be  surprised 
if  he  is  named  in  some  public  journal  of  each  of  these 
States  forthwith.  No  matter  where  his  name  may 
be  first  brought  out,  it  will  spread  like  lightning — 
that  is  my  opinion.  Is  there  then  cause  for  despon- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     295 

dency?  What  if  recent  events  shall  ultimate  as  I 
predict — shall  I  not  be  right  in  saying  that  I  felt 
disposed  to  join  in  the  huzzas? 

"I  asked  myself  to  whom  shall  I  address  my  no- 
tions— and  I  sat  down  to  address  you.  I  felt  that 
you  would  even  indulge  me  in  a  delusion,  if  you 
should  so  consider  it,  so  full  of  pleasing  anticipa- 
tions for  the  country  and  the  liberty  of  the  human 
race.  I  know  I  need  not  ask  you  to  meditate  on 
these  things,  but  I  will  request  you  to  show  this 
to  Gilmer,  should  it  fall  in  your  way;  and  if  you 
think  it  well,  cause  to  be  thrown  out  some  sugges- 
tions in  the  Charlottesville  paper.  When  we  meet 
in  Washington,  we  will  talk  more  at  large. 
"Yours  most  truly, 

"J.  TYLER. 
"GENERAL  GORDON." 

On  the  8th  of  December,  of  the  same  year,  Gor- 
don wrote  from  Washington  to  his  wife  that  Mr. 
Ritchie's  loss  of  his  election  as  public  printer  "has 
produced  much  sensation  here  in  both  parties;"  and 
rejoiced  that  "Mr.  Leigh's  election  is  now  consid- 
ered certain" — a  prognostication  that  found  its  ful- 
fillment a  short  time  thereafter  in  the  choice  of  Mr. 
Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate by  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  as  succes- 
sor to  Mr.  Rives. 

Gordon's  own  defeat  for  Congress  by  Mr.  Gar- 
land in  the  congressional  election  of  1834  had  not 
served  to  sour  his  kindly  and  generous  spirit.  To 
his  wife,  who  was  then  residing  in  the  old  Maury 
house  at  Edgeworth,  which  was  burned  in  the  Feb- 
ruary following,  he  said  in  the  same  letter:  "I  am 
happy  to  hear  that  Mr.  Rives'  family  are  mingling 
in  the  society  of  the  neighborhood  without  reserve. 
I  should  be  extremely  mortified  if  the  demon  of 
party  should  expel  the  social  virtues  from  our  neigh- 
borhood. I  hope  you  will  visit  Mrs.  Rives,  and  offer 


296     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

her  the  hospitality  of  our  humble  dwelling.  I  do 
not  wish  to  embark  our  ladies  on  the  stormy  sea 
of  politics.  Long  may  their  smiles  and  approbation 
be  the  purest  rewards  of  patriotism,  whilst  they 
separate  themselves  from  those  angry  feelings,  which 
men  contending  for  empire  always  feel." 


CHAPTER  XX 

DEFEATED  FOR  CONGRESS CALHOUN's  LETTER  ON 

JACKSON'S  DICTATION  OF  A  SUCCESSOR — 

BARNWELL  ON  THE  WHIGS TYLER  AND 

THE  EXPUNGING  RESOLUTION. 

The  result  of  the  election  in  Virginia  was  a  triumph 
for  the  Jacksonian  Democracy.  Gordon,  defeated 
by  a  "conservative"  Democrat,  ended  his  six  years' 
career  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
with  the  close  of  the  second  session  of  the  23d  Con- 
gress, which  adjourned  on  the  3d  of  March,  1835. 
Jackson,  who  had  determined  on  VanBuren  as  his 
political  heir,  also  determined  that  he  should  be 
nominated  "by  a  national  convention.  The  conven- 
tion met  in  Baltimore  in  May,  1835,  and  named 
VanBuren,  and  Richard  M.  Johnson  of  Kentucky  as 
candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President,  and  ad- 
journed without  a  formal  platform,  but  as  standing 
on  Jackson's  "policies."  Mr.  Calhoun  viewed  the 
situation  with  great  anxiety.  In  the  same  month  in 
which  the  Jacksonian  Democracy  met  in  convention  in 
Baltimore,  Calhoun  wrote  to  Gordon  as  follows: 

"Fort  Hill,  22d  May,  1835. 
"My  Dear  Sir: 

"The  results  of  your  election  have  cast  a  deep  and 
universal  gloom  over  the  patriotic  and  reflecting  in 
this  quarter.  Who  could  have  thought  it,  that  the 
oldest  and  the  proudest  of  the  slave-holding  States, 
the  most  steadfast  heretofore  in  her  political  prin- 
ciples, and  to  which  all  the  South  looked  up  as  to  a 
leader  in  their  political  struggles,  would  in  so  short 
a  time  become  a  colony  of  New  York,  to  be  ruled  by 
the  lowest  and  basest  cabal  that  ever  aspired  to  do- 
minion? The  sympton  is  awful.  In  Virginia  the 


29 8     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

doom  of  the  slave-holding  States  is  fixed,  unless 
something  is  done  promptly  to  arrest  the  current  of 
events.  We  shall  be  the  most  degraded  portion  of 
the  civilized  world.  Our  condition  will  be  worse 
than  our  slaves,  who  will  have  the  sympathy  and 
kindness  of  our  masters  of  Albany,  while  we  shall 
be  the  object  of  their  scorn  and  hatred,  unless  pro- 
tected by  their  contempt.  Something  must  be  done; 
but  what  that  something  should  be  is  a  great  and 
serious  question. 

"I  see  that  in  order  to  save  yourselves  from  the 
grasp  of  the  regency,  you  are  moving  on  White.  You 
know  my  opinion  on  that  point.  The  very  resort  to 
it  is  among  the  strongest  symptons  of  our  decay.  I 
do  not  condemn  the  move.  It  may  be  necessary  in 
the  desperate  state  into  which  you  are  thrown;  but 
I  doubt  the  success  of  the  move,  and  if  it  should 
prove  successful,  I  doubt  the  consequences.  Much 
however,  will  depend  on  the  ground  on  which  the 
canvass  is  placed,  both  as  to  the  success  of  the  move, 
and  its  consequences,  whether  successful  or  not;  and 
it  is  to  that  point  I  wish  to  call  your  attention,  as  one, 
if  judiciously  taken,  which  may  blend  it  with  great 
and  important  consequences. 

"I  do  not  know  how  others  may  regard  it,  but  as 
to  myself,  I  would  view  the  success  of  the  Execu- 
tive's nominee  to  be  a  case  of  open  and  palpable 
usurpation  of  the  supreme  executive  power;  as  much 
so  as  if  it  had  been  effected  by  the  army  and  navy. 
I  see  no  practical  difference  whether  the  Executive 
employs  them,  or  the  more  effectual  and  dangerous 
means — the  patronage  of  the  Government — to  give 
us  a  ruler,  unless  indeed  it  be  more  base  and  fatal 
to  submit  to  the  latter  than  the  former.  I  for  one, 
at  least,  am  prepared  to  take  this  high  and  manly 
ground  in  advance,  and  to  announce  openly  and 
boldly  that  the  attempt  of  the  Executive  to  nomi- 
note  his  successor  would,  if  successful,  constitute  a 
case  of  manifest  usurpation  of  the  supreme  execu- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     299 

tive  power,  and  of  plain  subornation  of  our  institu- 
tions and  liberty, — be  in  fact  the  establishment  of  an 
odious  and  corrupt  despotism  on  the  ruins  of  our  Re- 
publican institutions,  and  that  obedience  to  such  au- 
thority would  be  a  matter  of  discretion  and  not  of 
constitutional  obligation.  Let  this  ground  be  as- 
sumed openly  and  boldly,  accompanied  by  a  deter- 
mined assault  on  the  traitorous  assembly  of  office- 
holders and  office-seekers  at  Baltimore,  and  a  new 
and  far  more  interesting  and  hopeful  character  will 
be  given  to  the  canvass — one  which  would  attract  the 
affection  of  all  who  are  in  favor  of  liberty  and  op- 
posed to  usurpation  and  slavery,  and  which  will  yield 
fruits  whether  you  are  victors  or  not. 

"Permit  me  to  add,  in  reference  to  yourself,  that 
you  had  no  friend  who  took  more  interest  personally 
in  your  success,  or  felt  more  mortified  in  your  defeat. 
"Yours  sincerely  and  truly, 

"J.  C.  CALHOUN. 
"HON.  WM.  F.  GORDON/' 

The  combination  of  strict-construction  Republi- 
cans and  National  Republicans  who  were  opposed  to 
Jackson,  the  latter  of  whom  were  now  generally 
known  as  Whigs,  put  forward  in  Virginia  "The 
People's  Republican  Whig  Ticket,"  with  Hugh  L. 
White  of  Tennessee,  as  their  nominee  for  President 
and  John  Tyler  of  Virginia  for  Vice-President.  Gor- 
don was  one  of  the  electors  on  this  ticket;  and  other 
Virginians  of  prominence  on  it  were  Mark  Alexan- 
der, Chapman  Johnson,  John  L.  Marye,  John  Jan- 
ney,  Charles  James  Faulkner  and  Briscoe  G.  Bald- 
win. 

Judge  White  was  in  the  Senate  from  Ten- 
nessee, in  which  body  he  had  been  Jackson's  succes- 
sor. Gordon  had  known  him  personally  and  pleas- 
antly as  a  member  of  his  mess,  when  he  and  the 
others  who  belonged  to  it,  including  Benton,  were 
"all  Jackson  men."  White  had  supported  Jackson 


300    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

in  his  war  on  the  Bank;  but  in  February,  1835,  he 
had  attacked  the  administration  in  a  speech  in  favor 
of  restricting  executive  patronage.  He  had  followed 
this  up  by  another  speech  in  opposition  to  Benton's 
resolution  to  "expunge"  the  resolutions  of  censure, 
that  had  been  passed  by  the  Senate,  condemning  Jack- 
son for  removing  the  deposits;  and  was  now  so  far 
advanced  into  the  camp  of  Jackson's  opponents  as 
to  attract  their  attention  to  him  as  an  available  can- 
didate with  which  to  oppose  the  candidate  of  the 
President. 

But  the  Republican-Whig  combination  lacked 
unity;  and  while  Republicans  and  Whigs  in  the 
South  supported  White,  the  Whigs  of  the  North 
voted  for  General  William  Henry  Harrison, 
who  was  not  inoculated  with  the  virus  of  State- 
Rights.  White  carried  Tennessee  and  Georgia,  re- 
ceiving twenty-six  votes  in  the  electoral  college.  Van- 
Buren  had  one  hundred  and  seventy,  and  was  elected. 
Harrison's  vote  was  seventy-three;  while  Webster 
got  fourteen,  and  Willie  P.  Mangum  of  North  Caro- 
lina, eleven.  "The  double-shotted  ticket  killed  us," 
wrote  Tyler  to  Henry  A.  Wise  in  January,  1837,  al- 
luding to  the  division  of  the  coalition,  in  the  election, 
between  Harrison  in  the  North  and  White  in  the 
South. 

Everywhere  the  feeling  of  discord  was  rankling, 
without  regard  to  North  or  South.  The  State-Rights 
men  had  little  or  nothing  in  common  with  the  Na- 
tional Republicans,  except  hostility  to  Jackson. 
Neither  element  trusted  or  liked  the  other.  Mr. 
Robert  W.  Barnwell,  of  South  Carolina,  illustrated 
this  feeling  of  distrust  and  discord  in  a  letter  written 
some  months  earlier  to  Gordon : 

"Beaufort,  S.  C,  6th  August,  1834. 
"My  Dear  Gordon: 

"I  believe  that  you  know  enough  of  my  disinclina- 
tion for  writing  to  be  somewhat  surprised  at  receiv- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     301 

ing  this  letter  from  me.  Whilst  I  say  truly  that  I 
have  felt  much  interest  in  your  political  course,  and 
would  have  been  much  pleased  at  a  renewal  of  our 
intercourse,  yet  I  must  acknowledge  that  it  required 
some  additional  motive  to  overcome  my  repugnance 
to  letter-writing.  A  young  gentleman  of  Beaufort 
requested  me  to  obtain  some  information  with  respect 
to  your  University  at  Charlottesville,  and  I  knew  no 
one  who  was  more  competent  to  afford  us  this  in- 
formation than  yourself.  Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to 
forward  to  me  some  enumeration  of  the  studies  re- 
quired for  admission,  and  the  studies  pursued  by  the 
different  classes,  together  with  such  remarks  as  may 
facilitate  the  object  of  this  application? 

"It  is  not  long  since  we  were  together  in  Wash- 
ington, comparing  and  contrasting  my  sombre  and 
your  bright  prognostications  with  respect  to  the  des- 
tinies of  the  Republic.  And  yet  so  rapidly  have 
events  of  the  deepest  import  to  the  freedom  of  the 
people  hurried  to  their  consummation,  that  I  can 
scarcely  believe  that  our  Government  has  only  had 
one  additional  year  of  maturity  to  ripen  its  powers. 
Although  no  longer  feeling  the  madness  of  the  strife, 
strong  associations  with  numerous  and  valued  friends 
have  given  a  spur  to  the  patriotic  anxiety  with  which 
I  have  watched  passing  events.  I  know  not  whether 
you  will  not  suspect  me  of  being  so  deeply  imbued 
with  nullification  as  to  feel  an  insane  terror  of  legis- 
lative usurpation;  but  so  it  is,  that  even  the  furious 
career  of  the  old  vandal,  who  is  called  President, 
affects  me  with  less  gloomy  anticipations  of  our  fu- 
ture security  in  the  enjoyment  of  institutions  truly 
free  than  the  base  and  shameless  love  of  spoil  indi- 
cated in  both  houses  at  the  close  of  the  session. 

"I  cannot  say  that  my  past  experience  permitted 
me  very  sanguinely  to  anticipate  forbearance  among 
our  Northern  and  Western  legislators;  yet  the  im- 
mediate danger  of  our  civil  rights,  and  the  united 
stand  made  for  them  by  South  and  North  ought  in 


302     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

reason  to  have  mitigated  the  ravenousness  of  the 
Whigs.  How  very  far  this  was  from  being  the  case, 
the  immense  amount  of  your  appropriations  will 
show.  The  position  of  the  State-Rights  party  is  ex- 
tremely dangerous,  whilst  it  is  compelled  to  act  with 
those  who  are  the  most  formidable  and  deadly  ene- 
mies of  its  principles.  Whilst  Webster  rules  the 
National  Republicans,  they  never  will  permit  any 
measure  to  be  adopted  which  will  strengthen  the 
State-Rights  party.  They  will  give  us  warm  pro- 
fessions, but  their  enmity  neither  slumbers  nor  sleeps. 
Yet  aware  as  I  am  of  the  danger  of  your  position, 
I  cannot  devise  any  more  safe  or  more  efficient  line 
of  policy  than  that  which  you  have  pursued.  It  is 
truly  melancholy  to  be  obliged  to  refer  the  greater 
part  of  our  present  dangers  to  the  collisions  of  Van- 
Buren  and  Calhoun.  Of  the  blame  I  acquit  Cal- 
houn,  for  his  talents  (which  rendered  him  dangerous 
to  the  other  aspirants)  he  could  not  and  ought  not 
to  have  suppressed.  Yet  whilst  in  the  commencement 
of  the  contest  I  believe  him  to  have  been  far  more 
sinned  against  than  sinning,  I  will  not  say  that  his 
subsequent  course  has  been  uninfluenced  by  resent- 
ment or  ambition.  Yet  I  cannot  but  find  excuses  for 
his  faults  in  his  fate,  which  has  thrust  him  upon  a 
people  who  have  neither  virtue  nor  intelligence  suffi- 
cient to  appreciate  his  greatness. 

"I  congratulate  you  personally  that  you  are  now 
thrown  openly  and  entirely    in    opposition    to    the 
schemes  of  that  wicked  cabal,  which  rules  the  land 
6  If  you  see   Gilmer,   make  my  kind  remem- 
brances to  him.     Believe  me, 

"Very  sincerely  your  friend, 

"R.  W.  BARNWELL. 
"GEN.  WM.  F.  GORDON." 

Barnwell  deserves  more  than  a  casual  mention  in 
these  pages.  He  was  younger  than  Gordon  by  some 
ten  or  twelve  years;  but  their  associations  during 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     303 

the  former's  two  terms  in  Congress  from  1829  to 
1833  had  thrown  them  into  a  close  personal  com- 
panionship, which  resulted  in  a  mutual  regard  and 
admiration.  If  the  younger  man  had  no  such  halo  of 
earlier  romance  adorning  his  story,  as  did  Gordon's 
latest  Presidential  candidate,  Judge  White,  who  at 
seventeen  years  of  age  was  said  to  have  ended  the 
Cherokee  war,  when  under  the  command  of  Gen- 
eral Sevier  he  won  the  battle  of  Etowah,  by  shooting 
the  Cherokee  Chief,  King  Fisher;  yet  Barnwell  was 
even  at  this  time  a  prominent  man  in  his  State,  and 
destined  later  to  have  a  career  that  was  as  patriotic 
as  it  was  highly  distinguished.  After  leaving  Con- 
gress he  occupied  for  six  years  the  dignified  position 
of  president  of  the  College  of  South  Carolina.  Re- 
tiring on  account  of  his  health,  he  was  appointed  to 
the  United  States  Senate,  and  served  during  the  ses- 
sion of  1860.  He  represented  South  Carolina  in  the 
convention  of  seceding  States,  which  met  at  Mont- 
gomery, Alabama,  early  in  1861;  and  it  was  by  his 
casting  vote  that  Jefferson  Davis  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Confederate  States.  Mr.  Barnwell 
served  his  State  and  country  later  as  a  Senator  in  the 
Confederate  Congress  at  Richmond;  and  died  in 
Columbia,  South  Carolina,  on  November  25,  1882, 
in  his  eighty-second  year,  admired,  honored,  and  es- 
teemed by  all  who  knew  him. 

The  election  of  VanBuren,  and  his  adoption  of 
Gordon's  plan  of  an  Independent  Treasury  as  the 
leading  measure  of  his  administration,  brought  about 
the  practical  destruction  of  the  coalition  between  the 
State-Rights  Republicans,  or  Democrats,  and  the  Na- 
tional Republicans,  or  Whigs.  In  1837  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  returned  to  an  active  affiliation  and  co-opera- 
tion with  the  Democratic  party  on  the  specie  plat- 
form of  the  Independent  Treasury;  and  Gordon  and 
a  host  of  Virginia  State-Rights  Democrats  went  with 
him.  In  1840  Gordon  supported  with  voice  and  vote 
the  nomination  of  VanBuren  for  a  second  term,  while 


3o4     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  Whigs  now  centered  their  attacks  upon  his  finan- 
cial policy  and  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme.  When  the 
electoral  votes  were  counted  in  February,  1841,  Wil- 
liam Henry  Harrison,  the  Whig  candidate,  had  a 
great  majority  over  his  competitor,  VanBuren;  and 
Mr.  Tyler,  who  was  a  State-Rights  man,  but  had  re- 
mained with  the  Whigs,  was  elected  on  the  ticket 
with  General  Harrison,  and  succeeeded  him  as  Presi- 
dent upon  his  death  a  month  after  his  inauguration. 

In  the  mean  time,  early  in  1836,  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Virginia  passed  resolutions  instructing  the 
Senators  from  that  State  to  vote  for  Benton's  ex- 
punging resolution.  These  Senators  were  Benjamin 
Watkins  Leigh  and  Mr.  Tyler.  Leigh  refused  to 
be  instructed,  and  held  on  to  his  seat.  He  wrote  to 
Tyler : 

"I  will  not  be  instructed  out  of  my  seat.  I  will 
not  obey  instructions  which  shall  require  me  to  vote 
for  a  gross  violation  of  the  Constitution.  If  I  shall 
be  instructed  to  vote  for  expunging  or  rescinding  the 
resolution  of  the  Senate  disapproving  General  Jack- 
son's conduct  in  removing  the  public  deposits  from 
the  Bank,  I  shall  obey  the  instruction  when  I  shall 
be  prepared  to  write  myself  fool,  knave  and  slave, 
and  not  before, — when  I  shall  be  prepared  to  obey 
an  instruction  to  vote  for  the  abolition  of  the  Senate, 
and  with  it  of  the  State  sovereignties, — when  I  shall 
be  willing  to  fix  the  monarchical  doctrines  of  the  pro- 
test upon  this  nation,  and  then,  in  effect  to  subvert 
the  Republic.  I  know  very  well  that  I  cannot  do  my 
duty  to  my  country  without  a  sacrifice  of  myself  as 
a  public  man  in  my  own  State;  for  as  the  advocate 
of  the  right  of  instruction  in  1812,  I  am  peculiarly 
situated;  but  I  am  prepared  to  make  the  sacrifice 
without  a  sigh  or  a  murmur." 

Mr.  Tyler  consulted  the  judgment  of  his  friends 
and  political  supporters  of  influence  in  the  State. 
Governor  Barbour  and  others  advised  against  resig- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     305 

nation ;  while  John  Hampden  Pleasants,  the  able  and 
powerful  editor  of  the  Richmond  Whig,  favored 
his  resignation.  Gordon  took  the  view  of  James  Bar- 
bour  and  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  against  resig- 
nation, and  wrote  Mr.  Tyler  the  following  letter : 

"Albemarle,  January  I5th,  1836. 
"My  Dear  Tyler: 

"I  received  your  welcome  letter  a  few  days  ago. 
I  have  given  to  it  all  the  consideration  I  am  capable 
of.  From  your  position  on  the  stage  of  affairs,  you 
have  a  more  commanding  view  than  I  can  possibly 
have,  and  my  opinions  may,  therefore,  be  worth 
little;  but  as  you  request  them,  they  shall  be  given 
in  all  sincerity.  I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  you 
ought  not  to  resign.  That  would  be  to  do  precisely 
what  your  adversaries  desire  you  should  do.  I  can- 
not tell  in  what  form  the  resolutions  of  the  legisla- 
ture may  pass.  You  say  you  would  have  no  difficulty 
to  obey  an  instruction  to  rescind  the  resolution  of 
the  Senate.  Is  that  proposed  by  Watkins'  resolu- 
tion more  than  a  proposition  to  rescind,  supremely 
ridiculous  as  it  is?  The  proposition  to  draw  black 
lines  around  the  original  resolution,  and  to  write  on 
it  that  it  is  expunged,  is  a  fetch  to  get  around  the 
constitutional  objection  to  an  obliteration  of  the  Jour- 
nal of  the  Senate,  and  a  new  interpretation  to  the 
word  'expunge.' 

"Were  I  in  your  place,  I  should  'agnize  a  willing 
and  prompt  alacrity',  and  obey  literally  the  instruc- 
tions given.  Obedience,  however,  is  not  what  your 
masters  at  Richmond  desire;  they  want  your  place, 
and  Leigh's.  Obedience  will  disappoint  them  woe- 
fully. As  to  the  fate  of  that  resolution  of  the  Senate, 
it  is  now  of  no  moment.  It  has  already  had  its  effect 
for  good  or  evil;  it  never  can  be  obliterated;  the 
very  effort  to  effect  that  would  give  it  a  more  con- 
spicuous place  in  history,  and  the  posterity  of  this 

20 


3o6    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

degenerate  and  corrupt  generation  will  have  to  de- 
cide whether  you,  who  denied,  or  those  who  asserted, 
a  rightful  control  over  the  public  revenue  for  the 
Chief  Executive  officer,  were  the  friends  of  liberty. 
You  suggest  the  propriety  of  resigning,  and  appeal- 
ing to  the  people.  Discard  the  idea.  Power  can 
only  be  controlled  by  power.  In  your  place  you  have 
power.  You  have  a  point  from  which  you  can  de- 
fend yourself.  If  you  resign,  you  sink  into  the  great 
mass  of  citizens,  without  a  shield  to  ward  off  the 
attacks  of  the  press  and  the  office  power  of  the  Ad- 
ministration. 

"Your  case  will  be  unlike  Rives' ;  he  resigned  with 
the  Administration  at  his  back — with  all  their  power, 
money  and  presses;  you  would  be  a  warrior  going 
into  battle  without  a  sword  or  shield.  The  question 
of  instructions  has  been  so  bandied  in  Virginia — has 
been  so  universally  acknowledged — that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  make  the  great  body  of  the  people  under- 
stand its  rightful  from  its  false  exercise  by  the  legis- 
lature. I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that,  if  you  can, 
without  violating  your  own  consciousness  of  duty  to 
your  country  and  yourself,  obey  the  instructions  of 
the  legislature  to  the  letter,  it  will  have  the  happiest 
effect  both  for  you  and  those  with  whom  you  act,  on 
the  people  of  Virginia. 

"The  time  must  come,  and  shortly,  when  the  people 
of  Virginia  at  least  will  learn  that  the  control  of  the 
revenue  of  the  country  is  not  an  executive  function. 
The  discussion  of  this  subject  at  your  present  session 
will  be  received  with  more  calmness  than  at  the  last. 
Let  the  charter  of  the  United  States  Bank  expire,  and 
present  the  naked  question  to  the  community,  and 
they  must  decide  rightly.  Mr.  Calhoun's  bill  to 
regulate  the  deposits  will  be  a  fine  opportunity,  not 
only  to  relieve  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  from 
the  high  and  painful  responsibility  which  so  much 
discretionary  power  has  imposed,  but  of  damning 
the  Administration  which  imposed  it  on  him. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     307 

"I  expect  great  results  from  this  session,  from  your 
body.  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun  will  both  wield 
a  power  infinitely  greater  than  when  they  were  con- 
sidered candidates  of  the  Presidency.  I  am  decidedly 
of  opinion  that  VanBuren  cannot  get  Virginia  against 
White.  I  was  at  Louisa  Court  the  other  day,  and 
was  present  at  a  meeting  to  send  delegates  to  Rich- 
mond. Many  of  General  Jackson's  strong  friends 
there  are  opposed  to  Van.  What  effect  their  drop- 
ping Colonel  Johnson  may  have  I  know  not.  If 
Johnson  himself  has  any  of  the  hero  remaining,  I 
think  he  and  his  friends  must  look  with  indignation 
on  the  attempt  to  use  him  for  the  promotion  of  Van, 
and  to  his  own  defeat.  My  own  opinion  is  that  if 
ever  we  can  get  General  Jackson's  shield  from  him, 
he  can  be  foiled.  You  must  show  up  the  corruption 
of  the  Administration.  Do  not  give  too  much  im- 
portance to  the  French  question.  It  is  a  ruse  of  the 
Administration  to  call  off  the  people  from  attending 
to  their  domestic  demerits.  There  can  be  no  war, 
and  if  there  is,  it  will  seal  the  fate  of  the  party.  But 
do  not  make  a  noise  about  it,  to  draw  off  the  atten- 
tion of  the  country  from  the  misrule  under  which 
we  are  suffering. 

"In  regard  to  your  own  affair,  I  wish  you  all  suc- 
cess. But  I  fear  that  it  will  be  too  good  for  us,  even 
to  get  the  second  office  of  the  government  for  a  man 
of  your  politics.  I  am  very  sure,  however,  that  you 
will  be  sustained  by  your  own  State,  or  rather  by  the 
party  in  Virginia,  which  must  now  stand  for  what 
Virginia  once  was.  Make  it  a  majority,  and  you  and 
the  cause  are  triumphant.  But  I  candidly  confess 
I  have  not  much  concern  who  is  President,  in  com- 
parison with  the  reassertion  of  those  Republican 
principles,  which  were  once  the  glory,  and  are  now 
the  disgrace  by  their  abandonment,  of  Virginia.  We 
have  a  very  able  paper  at  Charlottesville.  The  ed- 
itor, Moseley,  is  a  man  of  first-rate  talent.  It  is 


3o8    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

doing  good  in  this  part  of  Virginia.     Give  him  a 
hand. 

"Present  me  respectfully  to  any  of  my  old  friends 
who  remember  me, — to  Robertson  and  Mr.  Calhoun 
especially.  Accept  my  congratulations  on  the  mar- 
riage of  your  daughter.  Present  me  most  kindly  to 
General  Tipton  and  Mrs.  McDaniel's  family;  and 
believe  me, 

"Your  friend, 

WM.  F.  GORDON." 

Mr.  Tyler  proved  himself  a  wiser  politician  than 
either  Mr.  Leigh  or  Gordon.  He  declined  Leigh's 
example  and  Gordon's  advice,  and  resigned.  He 
lived  to  become  President  of  the  United  States,  while 
Mr.  Leigh's  public  career  ended  with  his  term  in  the 
Senate. 

When  Calhoun,  Tazewell,  Gordon  and  a  number 
of  other  leading  State-Rights  Republicans  returned 
to  the  Democratic  party  in  1837,  on  the  adoption  of 
the  Independent  Treasury  measure  by  VanBuren, 
they  did  not  take  with  them  from  the  Whig  alliance 
all  of  the  State-Rights  men.  Calhoun  himself  be- 
wailed in  a  letter  written  in  July,  1840,  the  existence 
of  these  conditions.  "If  united,"  said  he,  "victory 
(for  State-Rights)  would  be  certain,  and  safety 
placed  beyond  contingency." 

The  most  representative  State-Rights  man  in  Vir- 
ginia, who  remained  with  the  Whig  party,  was  Mr. 
Tyler. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

SLAVERY  ON   ITS  DOMESTIC   SIDE — NAT'S   INSURREC- 
TION  THE  TRAGEDY  AT  GERMANNA. 

From  1835,  when  Gordon's  last  term  in  Con- 
gress ended,  down  to  the  date  of  his  death,  the  slav- 
ery question  in  its  political  aspect  occupied  a  large 
space  upon  the  stage  of  national  affairs.  At  home, 
in  Virginia,  in  1831,  it  had  shaken  society  to  its 
foundations,  and  created  a  general  alarm  through- 
out the  South,  by  a  tragic  happening  in  one  of  the 
eastern  counties  of  the  State  that  culminated  in 
scenes  of  bloodshed  and  horror.  This  occurrence, 
which  is  known  as  "Nat's  Insurrection,"  or  "The 
Southampton  Insurrection,"  was  the  massacre  in 
August,  1831,  of  fifty-five  white  men,  women  and 
children  in  Southampton  County  by  a  body  of  some 
sixty  or  seventy  slaves,  under  the  leadership  of  a 
negro  slave,  named  Nat  Turner.  The  following 
account  of  this  ghastly  event  was  locally  published 
a  short  time  after  its  occurrence: 

"The  leader  of  this  insurrection  and  massacre 
was  a  slave  by  the  name  of  Nat  Turner,  about  thir- 
ty-one years  of  age,  born  the  slave  of  Mr.  Benjamin 
Turner  of  Southampton  County.  From  a  child  Nat 
appears  to  have  been  the  victim  of  superstition  and 
fanaticism.  He  stimulated  his  comrades  to  join  him 
in  the  massacre,  by  declaring  to  them  that  he  had 
been  commissioned  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  he  was 
acting  under  inspired  direction  in  what  he  was  going 
to  accomplish. 

"In  the  confession  which  he  voluntarily  made  to 
Mr.  Grey,  while  in  prison,  he  says:  'That  in  his 
childhood  a  circumstance  occurred  which  made  an 
indelible  impression  on  his  mind,  and  laid  the  ground 


3io    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

work  of  the  enthusiasm  which  terminated  so  fatally 
to  many.  Being  at  play  with  other  children,  when 
three  or  four  years  old,  I  told  them  something, 
which  my  mother  overhearing,  said  it  happened  be- 
fore I  was  born.  I  stuck  to  my  story,  however, 
and  related  some  things  which  went,  in  her  opinion, 
to  confirm  it;  others  being  called  on  were  greatly 
astonished,  knowing  these  things  had  happened, 
and  caused  them  to  say  in  my  hearing,  I  surely 
would  be  a  prophet,  as  the  Lord  had  showed  me 
things  which  happened  before  my  birth.  His 
parents  strengthened  him  in  this  belief,  and  said  in 
his  presence  that  he  was  intended  for  some  great 
purpose,  which  they  had  always  thought  from  cer- 
tain marks  on  his  head  and  breast.'  Nat,  as  he  grew 
up,  was  fully  persuaded  he  was  destined  to  accom- 
plish some  great  purpose;  his  powers  of  mind  ap- 
peared much  superior  to  his  fellow-slaves;  they 
looked  up  to  him  as  a  person  guided  by  divine  in- 
spiration; which  belief  he  ever  inculcated  by  his  aus- 
terity of  life  and  manners. 

"After  a  variety  of  revelations  from  the  spiritual 
world,  Nat  says,  in  his  confession,  that  'On  the  I2th 
of  May,  1828,  I  heard  a  loud  noise  in  the  heavens, 
and  the  spirit  instantly  appeared  to  me,  and  said 
the  serpent  was  loosened,  and  Christ  had  laid  down 
the  yoke  he  had  borne  for  the  sins  of  men ;  and  that 
I  should  take  it  on  and  fight  against  the  serpent,  for 
the  time  was  fast  approaching  when  the  first  should 
be  last  and  the  last  should  be  first — and  by  signs 
in  the  heavens  that  it  would  make  known  to  me  when 
I  should  commence  the  great  work — and  until  the 
first  sign  appeared,  I  should  conceal  it  from  the 
knowledge  of  men.  And  on  the  appearance  of  the 
sign  (the  eclipse  of  the  sun  last  February,  1831) 
I  should  arise  and  prepare  myself,  and  slay  my 
enemies  with  their  own  weapons.  And  immediately 
on  the  sign  appearing  in  the  heavens,  the  seal  was 
removed  from  my  lips,  and  I  communicated  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    311 

great  work  laid  out  for  me  to  do  to  four,  in  whom 
I  had  the  greatest  confidence,  (Henry,  Hark,  Nel- 
son and  Sam).  It  was  intended  by  us  to  have  begun 
the  work  of  death  on  the  4th  of  July  last.  Many 
were  the  plans  formed  and  rejected  by  us;  and  it 
affected  my  mind  to  such  a  degree,  that  I  fell  sick, 
and  the  time  passed  without  our  coming  to  any  de- 
termination how  to  commence — still  forming  new 
schemes  and  rejecting  them,  when  the  sign  appeared 
again,  which  determined  me  not  to  wait  longer.' 

"Nat  commenced  the  massacre  by  the  murder  of 
his  master  and  family.  He  says:  'Since  the  com- 
mencement of  1830,  I  had  been  living  with  Mr. 
Joseph  Travis,  who  was  to  me  a  kind  master,  and 
placed  the  greatest  confidence  in  me.  In  fact,  I  had 
no  cause  to  complain  of  his  treatment  to  me.  On 
Saturday  evening,  the  2Oth  of  August,  it  was  agreed 
between  Henry,  Hark,  and  myself,  to  prepare  a 
dinner  the  next  day  for  the  men  we  expected,  and 
then  to  concert  a  plan,  as  we  had  not  yet  determined 
on  any.  Hark,  on  the  following  morning,  brought 
a  pig,  and  Henry,  brandy;  and  being  joined  by 
Sam,  Nelson,  Will  and  Jack,  they  prepared  in  the 
woods  a  dinner,  where,  about  three  o'clock,  I  joined 
them.  I  saluted  them  on  coming  up,  and  asked 
Will  how  came  he  there;  he  answered  his  life  was 
worth  no  more  than  others,  and  his  liberty  as  dear 
to  him.  I  asked  him  if  he  thought  to  obtain  it?  He 
said  he  would,  or  lose  his  life.  This  was  enough 
to  put  him  in  full  confidence.  Jack,  I  knew,  was 
only  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  Hark.  It  was  quickly 
agreed  we  should  commence  at  home,  (Mr.  J. 
Travis') ,  on  that  night;  and  until  we  had  armed  and 
equipped  ourselves,  and  gathered  sufficient  force, 
neither  age  nor  sex  was  to  be  spared,  (which  was 
invariably  adhered  to).  We  remained  at  the  feast 
until  about  two  hours  in  the  night,  when  we  went 
to  the  house  and  found  Austin;  they  all  went  to 
the  cider-press  and  drank,  except  myself.  On  re- 


3i2     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

turning  to  the  house,  Hark  went  to  the  door  with 
an  axe  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  it  open,  as  he 
knew  we  were  strong  enough  to  murder  the  family, 
if  they  were  awakened  by  the  noise;  but  reflecting 
that  it  might  create  an  alarm  in  the  neighborhood, 
we  determined  to  enter  the  house  secretly,  and  mur- 
der them  while  sleeping.  Hark  got  a  ladder  and 
set  it  against  the  chimney,  on  which  I  ascended,  and 
hoisting  a  window,  entered  and  came  down  stairs 
unbarred  the  door,  and  removed  the  guns  from  their 
places.  It  was  then  observed  that  I  must  spill  the 
first  blood.  On  which,  armed  with  a  hatchet,  and 
accompanied  by  Will,  I  entered  my  master's  cham- 
ber; it  being  dark,  I  could  not  give  a  death-blow; 
the  hatchet  glanced  from  his  head,  he  sprang  from 
the  bed  and  called  his  wife;  it  was  his  last  word. 
Will  laid  him  dead  with  a  blow  of  his  axe,  and  Mrs. 
Travis  shared  the  same  fate  as  she  lay  in  bed.  The 
murder  of  this  family,  five  in  number,  was  the  work 
of  a  moment,  not  one  of  them  awoke;  there  was  a 
little  infant  sleeping  in  a  cradle,  that  was  forgotten 
until  we  had  left  the  house,  and  gone  some  distance, 
when  Henry  and  Will  returned  and  killed  it;  we 
got  here  four  guns  that  would  shoot,  and  several  old 
muskets,  with  a  pound  or  two  of  powder.  We  re- 
mained some  time  at  the  barn,  where  we  paraded; 
I  formed  them  in  a  line  as  soldiers,  and  after  carry- 
ing them  through  all  the  manoeuvres  I  was  master 
of,  marched  them  off  to  Mr.  Salathiel  Francis',  about 
six  hundred  yards  distant.' 

"They  proceeded  in  this  manner  from  house  to 
house,  murdering  all  the  whites  they  could  find, 
their  force  augmenting  as  they  proceeded,  till  they 
amounted  to  fifty  or  sixty  in  number,  all  mounted, 
armed  with  guns,  axes,  swords  and  clubs.  They 
then  started  for  Jerusalem,  and  proceeded  a  few 
miles,  when  they  were  met  by  a  party  of  white  men, 
who  fired  upon  them  and  forced  them  to  retreat. 
'On  my  way  back'  (says  Nat),  'I  called  at  Mrs. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     313 

Thomas',  Mrs.  Spencer's,  and  several  other  places; 
the  white  families  having  fled,  we  found  no  more 
victims  to  gratify  our  thirst  for  blood.  We  stopped 
at  Major  Ridley's  quarter  for  the  night;  and  being 
joined  by  four  of  his  men,  with  the  recruits  made 
since  my  defeat,  we  mustered  now  about  forty  strong. 
'  'After  placing  out  sentinels,  I  lay  down  to  sleep, 
but  was  quickly  roused  by  a  great  racket;  starting 
up,  I  found  some  mounted,  and  others  in  great  con- 
fusion. One  of  the  sentinels  having  given  the  alarm 
that  we  were  about  to  be  attacked,  I  ordered  some 
to  ride  round  and  reconnoitre;  and  on  their  return 
the  others  being  more  alarmed,  not  knowing  who 
they  were,  fled  in  different  ways,  so  that  I  was  re- 
duced to  about  twenty  again;  with  this  I  deter- 
mined to  attempt  to  recruit,  and  proceeded  on  to 
rally  in  the  neighborhood  I  had  left.  Dr.  Blunt's 
was  the  nearest  house,  which  we  reached  just  before 
day;  on  riding  up  the  yard,  Hark  fired  a  gun.  We 
expected  Dr.  Blunt  and  his  family  were  at  Major 
Ridley's,  as  I  knew  there  was  a  company  of  men 
there;  the  gun  was  fired  to  ascertain  if  any  of  the 
family  was  at  home;  we  were  immediately  fired 
upon  and  retreated,  leaving  several  of  my  men.  I 
do  not  know  what  became  of  them,  as  I  never  saw 
them  afterwards.  Pursuing  our  course  back,  and 
coming  in  sight  of  Capt.  Harris',  where  we  had 
been  the  day  before,  we  discovered  a  party  of  white 
men  at  the  house,  on  which  all  deserted  me  but  two 
(Jacob  and  Nat).  We  concealed  ourselves  in  the 
woods  till  near  night,  when  I  sent  them  in  search 
of  Henry,  Sam,  Nelson  and  Hark;  and  directed 
them  to  rally  all  they  could,  at  the  place  we  had 
our  dinner  the  Sunday  before,  where  they  would 
find  me;  and  I  accordingly  returned  there  as  soon 
as  it  was  dark,  and  remained  until  Wednesday  even- 
ing, when,  discovering  white  men  riding  around  the 
place  as  though  they  were  looking  for  some  one, 
and  none  of  my  men  joining  me,  i  concluded  Jacob 


3i4    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

and  Nat  had  been  taken,  and  compelled  to  betray 
me.  On  this  I  gave  up  all  hope  for  the  present,  and 
on  Thursday  night,  after  having  supplied  myself 
with  provisions  from  Mr.  Travis',  I  scratched  a  hole 
under  a  pile  of  fence-rails  in  a  field,  where  I  concealed 
myself  for  six  weeks,  never  leaving  my  hiding-place 
but  for  a  few  minutes  in  the  dead  of  the  night  to 
get  water,  which  was  very  near;  thinking  by  this 
time  I  could  venture  out,  I  began  to  go  about  in  the 
night  and  eavesdrop  the  houses  in  the  neighborhood; 
pursuing  this  course  for  about  a  fortnight,  and  gath- 
ering little  or  no  intelligence,  afraid  of  speaking  to 
any  human  being,  and  returning  every  morning  to 
my  cave  before  the  dawn  of  day.  I  know  not  how 
long  I  might  have  led  this  life,  if  an  accident  had  not 
betrayed  me.  A  dog  in  the  neighborhood,  passing 
by  my  hiding-place  one  night  while  I  was  out,  was 
attracted  by  some  meat  I  had  in  my  cave,  and 
crawled  in  and  stole  it,  and  was  coming  out  just  as 
I  returned.  A  few  nights  after,  two  negroes  hav- 
ing started  to  go  hunting  with  the  same  dog,  and 
passed  that  way,  the  dog  came  again  to  the  place; 
and  having  just  gone  out  to  walk  about,  discovered 
me  and  barked,  on  which  thinking  myself  discovered, 
I  spoke  to  them  to  beg  concealment.  On  making 
myself  known  they  fled  from  me.  Knowing  then 
they  would  betray  me,  I  immediately  left  my  hid- 
ing-place, and  was  pursued  almost  incessantly,  until 
I  was  taken  a  fortnight  afterwards,  by  Mr.  Benja- 
min Phipps,  in  a  little  hole  I  had  dug  out  with  my 
sword,  for  the  purpose  of  concealment,  under  the 
top  of  a  fallen  tree.  On  Mr.  Phillips  discovering 
the  place  of  my  concealment,  he  cocked  his  gun  and 
aimed  at  me.  I  requested  him  not  to  shoot,  and  I 
would  give  up,  upon  which  he  demanded  my  sword, 
I  delivered  it  to  him  and  he  brought  me  to  prison.' 

"Nat  was  executed  according  to  his  sentence,  at 
Jerusalem,"  (the  county-seat  of  Southampton), 
"November  n,  1831.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the 


persons  murdered  in  the  insurrection,   on  the   2ist 
and  22nd  of  August,  1831 : 

"Joseph  Travis  and  wife,  and  three  children,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Turner,  Hartwell  Prebles,  Sarah  New- 
some,  Mrs.  P.  Reese  and  son  William,  Trajan  Doyle, 
Henry  Bryant  and  wife  and  child,  and  wife's 
mother;  Mrs.  Catherine  Whitehead,  son  Richard, 
four  daughters  and  grandchild;  Salathiel  Francis, 
Nathaniel  Francis'  overseer  and  two  children,  John 
T.  Barroe,  George  Vaughn,  Mrs.  Levi  Waller  and 
ten  children,  William  Williams,  wife  and  two  boys; 
Mrs.  Caswell  Worrel  and  child,  Mrs.  Rebecca 
Vaughn,  Ann  Elizabeth  Vaughn  and  son  Arthur, 
Mrs.  John  K.  Williams  and  three  children,  and  Ed- 
ward Drury — amounting  to  fifty-five." 

The  effect  of  this  terrible  massacre  upon  the  public 
mind  was  to  do  away  with  the  tendencies  thereto- 
fore existing  and  steadily  growing  in  Virginia  to- 
wards the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  Commonwealth. 

As  far  back  as  October  5,  1778,  the  Virginia 
General  Assembly  had  prohibited  the  importation 
of  slaves  into  the  State  by  sea  or  land,  under  a  pen- 
alty of  one  thousand  dollars  fine  for  each  one  brought 
in,  and  by  the  emancipation  of  the  slave  himself; 
while  the  first  constitution  of  the  State,  which  was 
unanimously  adopted  on  the  29th  June,  1776,  con- 
tained in  its  preamble  the  recitation  that  the  King 
of  Great  Britain  had  prompted  "our  negroes  to  rise 
in  arms  among  us,  those  very  negroes,  whom  by  an 
inhuman  use  of  his  prerogative  he  had  refused  us 
permission  to  exclude  by  law."  Many  men  in  Vir- 
ginia of  distinction  and  influence  favored  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  slaves,  and  there  were  numerous  in- 
stances of  their  manumission  by  testamentary  pro- 
vision. The  proposition  for  abolition,  prior  to  the 
time  when  the  New  England  and  Quaker  conscience 
flung  it  as  a  burning  brand  into  the  political  arena, 
had  been  one  of  grave  consideration  with  many  of 


3i6    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth;  and  not  in- 
frequently the  matter  had  been  one  of  counsel  and 
discussion  in  its  legislative  bodies.  But  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  situation  were  aggravated  by  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  slave  population  through  natural 
causes;  and  by  a  threatened  interference  with  the 
State's  local  matters  by  outsiders,  that  was  now  be- 
ginning to  assume  definite  and  determined  shape. 

Nat's  Insurrection  produced  a  profound  and  far- 
extending  belief  that  it  had  been  stimulated,  if  not 
directly  caused,  by  the  introduction  and  circulation 
among  the  slaves,  through  secret  agents,  of  the  abo- 
lition doctrines  advocated  in  New  England.  The 
resolutions  in  favor  of  emancipation  ceased  to  be 
introduced  in  the  General  Assembly;  and  the  feel- 
ing against  slavery,  that  had  begun  to  grow  so  strong 
in  Virginia,  received  a  violent  check.  The  first  legis- 
lature which  met  after  the  bloody  massacre  in 
Southampton,  instead  of  further  considering  plans 
of  emancipation,  enacted  the  most  stringent  laws  for 
the  government  and  control  of  the  slave  population. 
It  forbade  their  meetings,  it  proscribed  their  instruc- 
tion, and  it  imposed  on  the  slaves  themselves  grave 
penalties  for  seditious  and  rebellious  words.  Much 
of  this  legislation,  wrought  out  of  the  elemental  pas- 
sions that  were  aroused  by  Nat  Turner's  sanguinary 
performance,  were  subsequently  repealed  or  modi- 
fied; but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  result 
of  this  murderous  occurrence  was  to  fix  more  firmly 
than  ever  before  the  bonds  of  the  Virginia  slave, 
until  the  day  of  his  final  disenthralment  amid  the 
convulsions  and  cataclysms  of  a  relentless  and  bloody 
war. 

How  grave  were  the  difficulties  which  were 
pressed  upon  the  people  of  the  slave-holding  States, 
and  especially  of  Virginia,  where  the  desire  to  get 
rid  of  the  institution,  if  some  safe  way  might  be 
found,  had  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  Common- 
wealth prevailed  with  many,  was  illustrated  not  only 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     317 

by  the  savage  onslaughts  of  the  Northern  abolition- 
ists, but  by  more  than  one  tragic  incident  In  the  do- 
mestic lives  of  the  local  slave-owners.  One  of  these 
incidents  happened  in  Gordon's  immediate  family 
circle,  about  six  years  prior  to  his  death. 

His  brother,  Armistead,  a  bachelor,  and  his  two 
maiden  sisters,  Lucy  and  Elizabeth,  had  continued 
to  reside,  after  the  death  of  their  parents,  at  the 
family  homestead  at  Germanna.  Lucy  died  first, 
leaving  the  other  two  to  survive  her  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  property  and  the  occupancy  of  the  resi- 
dence. In  1852  it  became  known  among  the  negro 
slaves  on  the  Germanna  plantation  that  Elizabeth 
Gordon  had  made  a  will,  manumitting  her  slaves, 
of  whom  she  owned  a  number,  their  freedom  to  en- 
sue after  the  expiration  of  the  life-estate  of  her 
brother,  Armistead,  to  whom  she  bequeathed  them 
while  he  survived;  and  that  the  will,  in  accordance 
with  the  provision  of  the  law  of  Virginia  which  re- 
quired that  manumitted  slaves  should  be  removed 
out  of  the  State  within  a  year,  further  provided  that 
these  negroes,  when  their  freedom  attached,  should 
be  sent  to  Liberia,  for  which  purpose  a  sum  of 
money  was  provided  by  the  testatrix.  The  know- 
ledge of  the  contents  of  Miss  Gordon's  will  was 
communicated  to  the  other  slaves  on  the  place  by 
a  negro  servant-girl,  who  was  a  housemaid  for  her 
mistress,  and  who  had  been  taught  to  read  and  write 
by  her.  This  girl  saw  her  mistress'  will  in  a  bureau- 
drawer  where  it  had  been  inadvertently  left;  and 
a  short  time  thereafter  both  the  sister  and  brother 
died  suddenly,  one  on  one  day  and  the  other  on  the 
following,  from  poison  in  the  coffee  which  had  been 
prepared  and  served  by  the  domestics  in  the  house. 
The  conclusion  was  irresistible  that  they  had  been 
murdered  by  the  negroes  in  order  that  the  latter 
might  obtain  the  freedom  that  had  been  provided 
for  them  by  the  will.  The  will  was  probated  and 
its  provisions  carried  out  by  Gordon,  who  qualified 


318     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

as  administrator.  The  emancipated  slaves  were  sent 
to  Liberia;  but  they  became  very  much  dissatisfied 
after  their  arrival  there,  and  more  than  one  letter 
came  back  from  them  to  Virginia,  vainly  entreating 
that  they  be  returned  to  America  and  restored  to 
slavery. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  SLAVERY  PETITIONS — SLAVERY  AND  SECESSION 
THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850. 

The  Ordinance  of  1787  prohibited  slavery  in  the 
Northwest  Territory,  that  magnificent  domain 
whose  bestowal  upon  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  by  Virginia  has  entitled  her  since  to  the  proud 
and  significant  appellation  of  "Mother  of  States." 
The  State  of  Ohio  was  formed  out  of  a  portion  of 
the  Northwest  Territory,  and  was  admitted  into  the 
Union  on  November  2,  1802.  The  territory  of  the 
new  State  was  rapidly  settled;  and  thenceforward, 
during  Mr.  Jefferson's  administrations,  repeated  and 
persistent  efforts  were  made  by  citizens  of  Ohio,  who 
are  said  to  have  felt  the  hardships  of  pioneer  life, 
and  to  have  pictured  to  themselves  "in  golden  colors 
the  ease  and  affluence  incident  to  slave  labor  as  it 
existed  in  the  South,"  to  legalize  slavery  in  the  re- 
gion northwest  of  the  Ohio  River. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  8th  of 
February,  1803,  a  communication  was  presented 
from  Mr.  William  Henry  Harrison,  president  of 
the  convention  of  the  Territory  of  Indiana,  memo- 
rializing Congress  on  behalf  of  the  convention,  to 
suspend  the  article  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  North- 
west Territory. 

Reports  were  made  in  favor  of  several  similar 
petitions  sent  in  to  Congress,  but  they  were  never 
acted  on;  and  finally  a  committee,  of  which  Ran- 
dolph of  Roanoke  was  chairman,  reported  that  it 
was  not  expedient  at  that  time  to  suspend  the  sixth 
article  of  the  compact  of  the  government  of  the  ter- 
ritory northwest  of  the  Ohio  River,  which  was  the 
article  prohibitive  of  slavery. 


320    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

This  ended  the  slavery  dream  of  the  people  of  the 
Northwest  Territory. 

It  was  hoped  and  believed  by  many  that  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise,  that  sectional  measure  of  demar- 
cation which  made  two  different  peoples  in  one  gov- 
ernment, and  alarmed  Jefferson  "like  a  fire-bell  in 
the  night,"  would  end  the  question  of  slavery.  But 
the  issue  was  one  that  would  not  down.  From  the 
time  of  Gordon's  entrance  into  Congress  in  1830 
until  the  final  disposition  of  the  institution  of  slav- 
ery by  wager  of  battle,  it  was  a  thing  that  seemed 
to  be  almost  constantly  in  the  public  mind. 

When  the  true  history  of  slavery  shall  come  to 
be  written  by  the  dispassionate  and  philosophical 
historian,  the  attitude  of  the  State-Rights  slave- 
holders towards  it  as  an  institution  will  be  better  un- 
derstood. "What  is  called  slavery,"  said  Mr.  Cal- 
houn,  "is  in  reality  a  political  institution,  essential  to 
the  peace,  safety,  and  prosperity  of  those  States  of 
the  Union  in  which  it  exists."  Gordon  believed, 
with  Calhoun,  that  it  was  so  inextricably  interwoven 
with  the  State-Rights  doctrine  of  constitutional  con- 
struction, that  the  abolition  of  the  one  meant  the 
subversion  of  the  other;  and  it  was  a  belief  entirely 
consistent  with  his  attitude  to  the  "basis"  question 
in  the  Virginia  Convention  of  1829-1830,  where  he 
had  aroused  the  wrath  of  the  slave-holders  of  the 
eastern  part  of  the  State  by  espousing  the  cause  of 
the  white  basis,  as  against  that  of  the  "federal  num- 
bers." The  number  of  slaves  in  the  slave-holding 
States  had  become  very  large;  and  the  advocates 
of  slavery  viewed  with  an  alarm  that  was  prophetic 
the  danger  and  the  evils  of  emancipating  such  a  popu- 
lation, and  leaving  them  as  freemen  in  the  commu- 
nity. 

Before  the  admission  of  Ohio,  and  the  petitions 
of  citizens  of  the  Northwest  Territory  for  slavery, 
the  anti-slavery  agitation  had  been  begun.  In  1790 
petitions  of  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     321 

were  presented  in  Congress  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slave-trade.     Benjamin  Franklin  signed  as  its  Presi- 
dent "a  memorial  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for 
promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  relief  of  free- 
negroes  held  in  bondage,  and  the  improvement  of 
the  African  race."     This  memorial  was  presented  to 
Congress  in  the  same  year.     At  intervals,  to  1820, 
various  petitions  in  regard  to  slavery,  chiefly  from 
the  Quakers,  were  presented;    and  in  the  latter  year 
a  number  of  petitions  were  offered  against  the  in- 
troduction of  slavery  into  any  State  thereafter  to  be 
admitted  into  the  Union.     Some  of  these  were  re- 
ferred to  committees,  and  others  were  merely  read. 
It  was  not  till  1827  that  the  abolition  campaign  was 
begun  on  a  business  principle  by  the  presentation  on 
February  12,  of  that  year,  by  Mr.  Barney  of  Mary- 
land, of  a  memorial  of  certain  citizens  of  Baltimore, 
praying  that  children  thereafter  born  of  slave  parents 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  might  be  free.  The  House 
refused  to  print  the  memorial,  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 
McDuffie  of  South  Carolina,  and  after  a  debate  in 
which  Mr.   Dorsey  of    Maryland    stated    that    the 
memorial  breathed  the  general  spirit  of  emancipa- 
tion, and  that  though  its  request  began  with  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,   its  ulterior  purpose  went  much 
further.     Four  years  later  John  Quincy  Adams  pre- 
sented  fifteen   petitions   from    inhabitants   of   Penn- 
sylvania praying  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade  therein.     Mr.  Adams  asked  that  the  petitions 
be  referred  to  the  committee  on  the  District,  saying 
that  he  regarded  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  a  proper  subject  for  legis- 
lative  disposition;    but  that  he  would  not  support 
the  abolition  of  slavery  there. 

In  1830,  the  year  in  which  Gordon  entered  Con- 
gress,— as  shown  by  the  corrected  census  of  that  year, 
published  in  Force's  "National  Calendar"  for  1832, 

21 


322     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

— every  one  of  the  then  twenty-seven  States  and  Ter- 
ritories of  the  Union  was  a  slave-holding  State  or  Ter- 
ritory, with  the  exception  of  Vermont ;  although  the 
number  of  slaves  in  the  New  England  States  and  in 
Ohio  and  Indiana  was  nominal. 

In  1836  petitions  for  abolition  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  poured  into  Congress;  and  Mr.  Adams 
became  the  vehicle  of  their  presentation.  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  proposed  in  1837,  in  the  Senate,  a  resolution 
"That  the  intermeddling  of  any  State,  or  States,  or 
their  citizens,  to  abolish  slavery  in  this  District,  or  in 
any  of  the  Territories,  on  the  ground,  or  under  the 
pretext  that  it  is  immoral  or  sinful,  or  the  passage 
of  any  act  or  measure  of  Congress  with  that  view 
would  be  a  direct  and  dangerous  attack  on  the  insti- 
tutions of  all  the  slave-holding  States." 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Clay  this  resolution  was 
amended  so  as  to  provide  "That  when  the  District 
of  Columbia  was  ceded  by  the  States  of  Virginia 
and  Maryland  to  the  United  States,  domestic  slav- 
ery existed  in  both  of  those  States,  including  the 
ceded  territory;  and  that  as  it  still  continues  in  both 
of  them,  it  could  not  be  abolished  within  the  Dis- 
trict, without  a  violation  of  that  good  faith  which 
was  implied  in  the  cession,  and  in  the  acceptance 
of  the  territory,  nor,  unless  compensation  were  made 
for  the  slaves,  without  a  manifest  infringement  of 
an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States;  nor  without  exciting  a  degree  of  just  alarm 
and  apprehension  in  the  States  recognizing  slavery, 
far  transcending  in  mischievous  tendency  any  pos- 
sible benefit  which  would  be  accomplished  by  the 
abolition." 

The  petitions  continued  to  pour  in,  and  the  ex- 
citement over  them  in  the  House  was  intense.  In 
1838  Mr.  Henry  L.  Pinckney  of  South  Carolina 
moved,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  series 
of  resolutions  which  provided  that  all  the  petitions 
should  be  referred  to  a  select  committee,  with  in- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     323 

structions  to  report  that  Congress  could  not  con- 
stitutionally interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States,  and 
ought  not  to  do  so  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The 
House  adopted  the  resolutions,  adding  soon  after 
a  further  provision  reported  from  this  committee 
that  thereafter  all  petitions  which  related  in  any  way 
to  slavery  or  its  abolition  should  be  laid  on  the  table, 
without  action  and  without  being  printed  or  re- 
ferred. Adams  and  Henry  A.  Wise  met  in  fierce 
debate  over  the  petitions.  The  former,  who  had 
started  out  in  1831  as  the  opponent  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  District,  continued  its  op- 
ponent to  the  end.  Wise,  at  a  later  period,  said  of 
him,  that  Mr.  Adams  "again  and  again,  in  the  lobby, 
on  the  floor,  told  me  vauntingly  that  the  pulpit  would 
preach,  and  the  school  would  teach,  and  the  press 
would  print,  among  the  people  who  had  no  tie  and 
no  associations  with  slavery,  until  would  not  only 
be  reached  the  slave-trade  between  the  States,  the 
slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  slavery  in 
the  District,  slavery  in  the  Territories,  but  slavery 
in  the  States.  Again  and  again  he  said  that  he  would 
not  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  if 
he  could;  for  he  would  retain  it  as  a  bone  of  conten- 
tion— a  fulcrum  of  the  lever  for  agitation,  agitation, 
until  slavery  in  the  States  was  shaken  from  its  base. 
And  his  prophesies  have  been  fulfilled — fulfilled  far 
faster  and  more  fearfully,  certainly,  than  ever  he 
anticipated  before  he  died." 

The  petitions  still  continued  to  come  in.  On  the 
25th  of  February,  1850,  Mr.  Giddings  of  Ohio, 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  presented  two  pe- 
titions, one  from  Isaac  Jeffries  and  other  citizens  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  other  from  John  T.  Wood- 
ward and  other  citizens  of  Delaware  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, which  were  as  follows: 

"We,  the  undersigned  inhabitants  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Delaware,  believing  that  the  Federal  Con- 


324    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

stitution,  in  pledging  the  strength  of  the  whole  na- 
tion to  support  slavery,  violates  the  Divine  law, 
makes  war  upon  human  rights,  and  is  grossly  incon- 
sistent with  republican  principles;  that  its  attempt 
to  unite  slavery  in  one  body  politic  has  brought  upon 
the  country  great  and  manifold  evils,  and  has  fully 
proved  that  no  such  union  can  exist,  but  by  the  sac- 
rifice of  freedom  to  the  supremacy  of  slavery,  re- 
spectfully ask  you  to  devise  and  propose,  without 
delay,  some  plan  for  the  immediate,  peaceful  disso- 
lution of  the  American  Union." 

The  House  declined  to  receive  these  petitions  by 
a  vote  of  162  to  80.  On  February  ist,  1850,  the 
same  petitions,  praying  a  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
were  presented  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Hale  of  New 
Hampshire.  Three  Senators  voted  for  their  recep- 
tion; viz:  Messrs.  Hale,  Chase  of  Ohio,  and  Seward 
of  New  York. 

Calhoun  assailed  the  petitions,  from  the  time  of 
their  first  multitudinous  flood  upon  Congress  down 
to  his  death,  as  uin  themselves  a  foul  slander  on 
nearly  one  half  of  the  States  of  the  Union."  Von 
Hoist  says  of  his  attitude  towards  them :  "The 
charge  was  wholly  unfounded  that  he  was  endeavor- 
ing intentionally  to  incense  the  North  and  the  South 
against  each  other,  in  order  to  promote  the  purpose 
of  his  party.  He  spoke  the  simple  truth,  when  he 
asserted  in  his  speech  of  March  9,  1836,  that  'how- 
ever caluminated  and  slandered,'  he  had  'ever  been 
devotedly  attached'  to  the  Union  and  the  institu- 
tions of  the  country,  and  that  he  was  'anxious  to 
perpetuate  them  to  the  latest  generation.'  He  acted 
under  the  firm  conviction  of  an  imperious  duty  to- 
wards the  South  and  towards  the  Union,  and  his 
assertion  was  but  too  well  founded  that  these  peti- 
tions for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  were  blows  on  the  wedge,  which  would 
ultimately  break  the  Union  asunder." 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     325 

The  abolitionists  were  the  original  secessionists, 
who  desired  to  destroy  the  Constitution  and  the  Un- 
ion, and  to  separate  from  the  slave-holding  States; 
and  the  State-Rights  strict  constructionists  of  Cal- 
houn's  type  were  the  genuinely  patriotic  adherents 
of  the  Union  and  of  its  constitutional  institutions. 
Gordon  lived  long  enough  after  his  retirement  from 
active  participation  in  public  affairs  to  read  that  Mr. 
Wendell  Phillips  of  Massachusetts  said  at  a  meet- 
ing in  Boston  in  May,  1849,  "We  confess  that  we 
intend  to  trample  under  foot  the  constitution  of  this 
country;"  and  that  Mr.  William  Loyd  Garrison  de- 
manded in  his  paper,  The  Liberator,  in  September, 
1855,  "a  Northern  Confederacy,  with  no  Union 
with  slave-holders;"  and  that  in  the  same  paper  of 
June  20,  1856,  he  denounced  the  United  States  Con- 
stitution as  "a  covenant  with  death  and  an  agree- 
ment with  hell." 

Horace  Mann  said  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, during  the  3ist  Congress:  "Under  a  full  sense 
of  my  responsibility  to  my  countrv  and  my  God,  I 
deliberately  say,  better  disunion — better  a  civil  or 
a  servile  war — better  anything  that  God  in  his  provi- 
dence shall  send — than  an  extension  of  the  bounds  of 
slavery."  The  Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham  of  New  Jer- 
sey said  at  a  meeting  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society  in  New  York,  May  13,  1857:  "He  believed 
that  this  Union  effectually  prevented  them  from  ad- 
vancing in  the  least  degree  the  work  of  the  slave's 
redemption  *  *  *  As  to  the  word  Union,  they  all 
knew  it  was  a  political  catchword." 

Mr.  Calhoun,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  prescience 
of  the  Hebrew  prophet,  said:  "To  destroy  the  ex- 
isting relations  would  be  to  destroy  this  prosperity 
(of  the  Southern  States),  and  to  place  the  two  races 
in  a  state  of  conflict,  which  must  end  in  the  expul- 
sion or  extirpation  of  one  or  the  other.  No  other 
can  be  substituted  compatible  with  their  peace  or 
security.  The  difficulty  is  in  the  diversity  of  the 


326    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

races.  So  strongly  drawn  is  the  line  between  the  two 
in  consequence,  and  so  strengthened  by  the  force  of 
habit  and  education,  that  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  exist  together  in  the  community,  where  their  num- 
bers are  so  nearly  equal  as  in  the  slave-holding 
States,  under  any  other  relation  than  that  which  now 
exists.  Social  and  political  equality  between  them 
is  impossible.  No  power  on  earth  can  overcome  the 
difficulty.  The  causes  lie  too  deep  in  the  principles 
of  our  nature  to  be  surmounted.  But,  without  such 
equality,  to  change  the  present  condition  of  the  Afri- 
can race,  were  it  possible,  would  be  but  to  change 
the  form  of  slavery." 

The  breach  between  North  and  South  came  to  be 
an  ever-widening  one;  and  the  wedge  of  their  divi- 
sion, driven  home  by  the  persistent  and  relentless 
blows  of  the  abolitionists,  was  slavery.  The  North 
had  learned  to  look  upon  the  Union  under  the  Con- 
stitution as  desirable  only  so  long  as  it  seemed  use- 
ful or  agreeable;  for  New  England  had  attempted 
in  1803  to  create  a  Northern  Confederacy,  consist- 
ing of  five  States  of  her  territory,  with  New  York 
and  New  Jersey;  and  after  withdrawing  from  co- 
operation with  the  prosecution  of  the  War  of  1812, 
had  held  a  convention  of  those  States  to  formulate 
sectional  autonomy.  With  the  continued  introduc- 
tion of  the  abolition  petitions  into  Congress,  the 
North  now  began  to  regard  State-Rights  and  the 
strict  construction  of  the  Constitution  as  mere  dog- 
mas, set  up  and  persisted  in  by  the  South  for  the 
perpetuation  of  the  hated  institution. 

Calhoun,  with  towering  genius  and  prophetic 
foresight,  beheld  in  the  proposed  abolition  of  slavery 
the  overthrow  of  the  society  upon  whose  continued 
existence  the  happiness,  the  prosperity  and  the  free- 
dom of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  depended ; 
and  he  foresaw,  no  less  unerringly,  in  emancipation 
the  destruction  of  the  right  of  local  self-government 
by  the  subversal  of  the  State-Rights  doctrine.  The 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     327 

time  for  the  revolution  which  Jefferson  had  justified 
in  his  letter  of  January  i,  1826,  to  Gordon,  and  of 
which  Calhoun  asserted  the  right  in  his  toast  at  the 
Jefferson  Birthday  Dinner  in  1830,  seemed  to  be 
drawing  very  near  to  the  strict  constructionists  of  the 
South  in  the  year  1850. 

"When  the  future  historian,"  quotes  Benton  from 
a  leading  South  Carolina  newspaper,  published  on 
January  i,  1850,  "shall  address  himself  to  the  task 
of  portraying  the  rise,  progress  and  decline  of  the 
American  Union,  the  year  1850  will  arrest  his  at- 
tention as  denoting  and  presenting  the  first  marshal- 
ling and  arraying  of  those  hostile  forces  and  oppos- 
ing elements  which  resulted  in  dissolution;  and  the 
world  will  have  another  illustration  of  the  great 
truth  that  forms  and  modes  of  government,  how- 
ever correct  in  theory,  are  only  valuable  as  they  con- 
duce to  the  great  ends  of  all  government, — the  peace, 
quiet,  and  conscious  security  of  the  governed." 

The  spirit  of  separation,  which  had  been  illus- 
trated in  New  England  by  the  Hartford  Conven- 
tion, and  which  had  since  flamed  out  in  the  abolition 
speeches  of  Giddings  and  Frothingham  and  Garri- 
son, had  begun  in  1850  to  take  possession  of  many 
of  the  people  of  the  South,  who  loved  the  Union, 
but  who  loved  better  the  liberty  which  abolitionism 
assailed  in  assailing  the  constitution  of  government 
intended  to  preserve  it. 

Compromise  after  compromise  of  vital  and  an- 
tagonistic principles,  involving  constitutional  con- 
struction, the  rights  of  the  States,  and  the  institution 
of  slavery,  had  followed  each  other,  until  thought- 
ful and  far-seeing  men  began  to  anticipate  that  final 
decision  which  came  in  the  next  decade.  There  had 
been  compromises  in  the  formation  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  itself,  which  were,  even  at  the  time  of 
its  formation  and  adoption,  big  with  deferred 
trouble.  The  Missouri  Compromise,  which  Ran- 
dolph of  Roanoke  had  called  "a  dirty  bargain." 


328     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

while  he  denounced  the  "dough-faces"  from  the 
North  who  helped  to  make  it,  had  been  a  further 
source  of  continued  controversy  and  alienation.  Mr. 
Clay's  tariff  compromise,  in  Jackson's  administration, 
had  left  unsettled  the  tariff  question,  though  it  had 
served  to  end  Nullification,  and  now,  in  1850,  the 
Jeffersonians  and  the  Hamiltonians  faced  each  other, 
in  a  crisis  of  passions,  upon  the  same  dividing  issues 
of  constitutional  interpretation  that  had  aroused  the 
animosities  and  stirred  the  prejudices  of  the  makers 
of  the  Constitution  themselves. 

During  the  last  days  of  Folk's  administration, 
Calhoun,  convinced  that  the  right  of  self-govern- 
ment of  the  Southern  States  was  approaching  a 
period  of  imminent  peril,  urged  among  his  followers 
a  more  compact  union  on  the  part  of  the  South. 
Under  his  advice  a  large  number  of  Senators  and 
Representatives  from  the  Southern  States  united  in 
an  address  to  the  people  of  the  South,  setting  out 
the  wrongs  which  they  had  received  at  the  hands  of 
the  North,  which  required  redress.  In  response  to 
this  serious  political  document  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates of  the  people  of  Mississippi,  chosen  without 
regard  to  party  affiliation,  assembled  in  October, 

1849,  m  tnat  State,  and  recommended  that  "a  con- 
vention  of  slave-holding   States   should   be   held   at 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  on  the  first  Monday  of  June, 

1850,  to  devise  and  adopt  some  mode  of  resistance 
to  the  aggression  of  the  non-slave-holding  States." 

On  May  8,  1850,  Mr.  Clay  reported  to  the  Senate 
as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Thirteen  another 
compromise  of  the  threatening  questions  of  disunion 
and  slavery.  The  strict  constructionists  of  the  South 
had  in  the  meantime  appointed  their  delegates  to 
the  Nashville  Convention;  though  many  hung  back, 
hoping  again  for  the  intervention  of  the  hitherto 
unfailing  "compromise."  Henry  A.  Wise,  who  had 
been  chosen  as  the  delegate  from  his  district  in  Vir- 
ginia to  this  gathering,  wrote  a  letter  to  William 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     329 

H.  Roy,  the  president  of  the  Virginia  Convention  to 
select  delegates  to  Nashville,  in  which  he  voiced  the 
sentiment  of  the  Democrats  of  the  Commonwealth 
on  the  subject  of  further  compromise. 

"If  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  wrote 
Mr.  Wise,  "shall  be  nullified  by  a  majority  doctrine 
and  become  frittered  away  by  the  awful  pacification 
of  compromises  upon  compromises,  the  Union  will 
no  longer  exist  as  it  was  formed  by  the  Adamses  and 
Shermans  and  Franklins  and  Hamiltons  and  Lees 
and  Randolphs  and  Madisons  and  Rutledgcs  of  the 
Revolution;  it  will  cease  itself  to  be  a  compromise, 
the  compromise  of  compromises,  as  it  was  in  1789; 
it  will  become  the  absolutism  of  a  many-headed 
monster  of  oppression,  inequality  and  dishonor  to 
us,  and  we  will  be  obliged  to  resist  it  as  our  fathers 
did  'taxation  without  representation,'  or  lose  our 
self-respect  and  the  respect  of  the  rest  of  mankind, 
and  cease  to  be  a  free  people." 

The  Congress  of  Mr.  Clay's  Compromise  Bill  of 
1850  was  absorbed  by  the  tremendous  question  of 
slavery.  In  June  5,  1850,  Mr.  Chase  of  Ohio  moved 
an  amendment  to  the  bill  in  the  Senate,  "that  noth- 
ing herein  contained  shall  be  construed  as  authoriz- 
ing or  permitting  the  introduction  of  slavery  or  the 
holding  of  persons  as  property  within  said  territory" 
(of  Utah  and  New  Mexico).  The  amendment  was 
lost.  Mr.  Seward  of  New  York,  moved  as  an 
amendment,  that  "neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  otherwise  than  upon  conviction  for  crime, 
shall  be  allowed  in  either  of  said  Territories  of 
Utah  and  New  Mexico."  It  was  the  language  of 
the  coming  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  paraphrased  from  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  North- 
west Territory.  Mr.  Seward's  amendment  was  lost. 
Mr.  Davis  of  Mississippi,  the  future  President  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America  offered  the  fol- 
lowing amendment:  "And  that  all  laws  or  parts 


330    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

of  laws,  usages  or  customs  pre-existing  in  the  terri- 
tory acquired  by  the  United  States  from  Mexico, 
and  which  in  said  Territories  restrict,  abridge  or 
obstruct  the  full  enjoyment  of  any  right  of  person 
or  property  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  as 
recognized  or  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution  and 
laws  of  the  United  States,  are  hereby  declared  and 
shall  be  held  as  repealed."  Mr.  Davis'  amendment 
was  lost.  Mr.  Douglas  of  Illinois,  later,  in  1860, 
the  nominee  of  a  faction  of  the  Democratic  party 
for  President,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Davis  of 
Mississippi,  proposed  the  Missouri  Compromise 
line  as  the  southern  boundary  of  Utah.  Mr.  Doug- 
las'  proposition  was  lost. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  Mr.  Root  of  Ohio 
had  offered  on  December  31,  1849,  a  resolution  in- 
structing the  committee  on  Territories  to  bring  in 
territorial  bills  for  that  part  of  the  Mexican  terri- 
tory which  had  been  ceded  to  the  United  States  by 
the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo,  lying  eastward 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  and  prohibiting 
slavery  therein.  Mr.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  later 
the  Vice-President  of  the  Confederate  States,  moved 
to  lay  Mr.  Root's  resolution  on  the  table.  The  mo- 
tion was  adopted.  The  affirmative  vote  was  a  South- 
ern one,  with  the  addition  of  ten  votes  from  Illinois, 
New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  The  negative 
votes  came  entirely  from  the  North. 

On  February  14,  1850,  Mr.  Giddings,  abolition- 
ist member  from  Ohio,  offered  in  the  House  a  reso- 
lution, "that  we  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident, 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  the  inalienable  rights  of  life 
and  liberty,  and  that  governments  are  instituted  to 
maintain  these  rights.  That  in  constituting  govern- 
ment in  any  territory  of  the  United  States,  it  is  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  secure  to  all  the  people  thereof, 
of  whatever  complexion,  the  enjoyment  of  the  rights 
aforesaid."  On  the  motion  of  a  Southern  member 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     331 

the  resolution  was  laid  on  the  table  by  a  majority 
composed  almost  entirely  of  Southerners. 

On  May  27,  1850,  Mr.  Cromwell  moved  to  sus- 
pend the  rules  to  enable  him  to  introduce  a  bill  to 
abolish  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. The  motion  to  suspend  was  lost  by  a  sectional 
vote,  but  one  Northern  man,  a  member  from  Ohio, 
voting  in  the  negative,  and  no  Southerner  voting 
in  the  affirmative.  On  September  5,  1850,  Mr. 
Toombs  of  Georgia  offered  an  amendment  to  the 
New  Mexico  territorial  bill,  that  "the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  such  statutes  thereof  as 
may  not  be  locally  inapplicable,  and  the  common  law 
as  it  existed  in  the  British  Colonies  of  America  until 
the  4th  day  of  July,  1776,  shall  be  the  exclusive 
laws  of  said  territory  upon  the  subject  of  African 
slavery  until  altered  by  the  people's  authority."  The 
whole  North  and  seven  Southern  members  voted  nay, 
and  the  rest  of  the  South  voted  aye,  and  the  amend- 
ment was  lost.  On  September  24,  1850,  Mr.  Pres- 
ton King  of  New  York  asked  leave  to  introduce  a 
bill  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
The  House  refused  to  suspend  the  rules.  Every 
man  who  voted  in  the  affirmative  was  from  the 
North. 

North  and  South,  regardless  of  party,  were  ar- 
rayed against  each  other  on  the  question  of  slavery, 
and  Jefferson's  "fire-bell  in  the  night"  was  now 
clanging  an  ominous  and  ceaseless  alarum. 

Mr.  Clay's  compromise  measure  of  1850  had  been 
originally  one  bill.  It  was  debated  throughout  the 
summer  session  of  Congress;  and  was  by  degrees 
separated  into  a  number  of  individual  bills.  These 
were  all  passed  by  the  Senate  and  the  House  in  the 
months  of  August  and  September,  and  having  been 
signed  by  the  President,  became  laws.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  Southern  Convention  had  met  at  Nashville 
in  June,  and  had  adjourned,  after  the  adoption  of 
resolutions,  to  meet  there  again  in  November  fol- 


332     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

lowing — a  meeting  that  proved  futile,  since  James 
M.  Mason  of  Virginia  had  written  into  Clay's  com- 
promise measure  a  fugitive  slave  law,  that  recon- 
ciled a  majority  of  the  Southern  people  to  a  postpone- 
ment of  the  mighty  issue,  which  Gordon,  and  most 
of  his  associates  in  the  convention's  second  assemblage 
in  November,  perceived  was  inevitable  and  already 
imminent. 


CHAPTER    XXIII 


The  movement  which  culminated  in  the  calling  of 
the  Southern  Convention  of  1850  at  Nashville  was  a 
highly  patriotic  one  from  the  standpoint  of  those 
who  fostered  it,  and  was  largely  inspired  by  the 
statesmanship  of  Mr.  Calhoun. 

"The  great  object  of  a  Southern  convention,"  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Collin  S.  Tarpley,  of  Mississippi,  on 
July  9,  1849,  "should  be  to  put  forth  in  a  solemn 
manner  the  causes  of  our  grievances  in  an  address  to 
the  other  states,  and  to  admonish  them,  in  a  solemn 
manner,  as  to  the  consequences  which  must  follow,  if 
they  should  not  be  redressed,  and  to  take  measures 
preparatory  to  it,  in  case  they  should  not  be.  The 
call  should  be  addressed  to  all  those  who  are  desirous 
to  save  the  Union  and  our  institutions,  and  who  in  the 
alternative,  should  it  be  forced  on  us,  of  submission 
or  dissolving  the  partnership,  would  prefer  the  lat- 
ter." 

Calhoun  and  Gordon,  and  men  who  thought  with 
them,  believed  that  the  time  had  come  for  some  de- 
cisive action.  Every  Northern  State  save  one  had 
indicated  then,  or  indicated  very  soon  thereafter,  by 
resolutions  adopted  by  its  legislature,  an  adherence  to 
the  Wilmot  Proviso — which  was  an  addition  offered 
on  behalf  of  many  Northern  Democrats,  by  Mr. 
Wilmot  of  Pennsylvania,  a  Democratic  member  of 
Congress,  to  the  bill  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
appropriating  two  millions  of  dollars  for  the  pur- 
chase of  territory  from  Mexico,  applying  to  any  sub- 
sequently acquired  territory  the  provision  of  the  Or- 
dinance of  1787,  that  it  should  have  "neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude  except  for  crime,  whereof 


334    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

the  party  shall  first  be  duly  convicted."  This  Wilmot 
Proviso  had  been  supported  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, where  it  was  enacted,  by  the  Northern 
Democrats  and  by  the  Whigs;  but  it  was  sent 
to  the  Senate  too  late  to  be  acted  on.  Every 
Southern  legislature,  save  one,  had  denounced  the 
proposed  exclusion  of  slavery  from  new  territory  by 
the  Federal  Government,  as  a  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  and  of  the  reserved 
rights  of  the  States. 

The  convention  met  at  Nashville  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed, with  representatives  from  five  states.  Gor- 
don, who  for  a  long  time  had  retired  from  active 
participation  in  Federal  politics,  was  deeply  interested 
in  the  movement,  and  had  a  profound  appreciation 
of  its  significance.  The  Virginia  delegates  who  at- 
tended in  June  were  Messrs.  Beverley  Tucker,  New- 
ton, Gholson,  Wm.  O.  Goode,  Claypoole,  and  Gor- 
don. On  the  6th  of  June,  1850,  Gordon  wrote  to 
his  wife  from  Nashville: 

"I  am  perfectly  well,  and  very  busy  with  the  affairs 
of  the  convention.  We  have  had  a  great  deal  of 
talent,  and  a  spirit  of  conciliation,  and  much  una- 
nimity so  far  in  our  councils.  I  cannot  say  when  the 
convention  will  adjourn.  We,  I  think,  cannot  ter- 
minate our  meeting  until  next  week.  I  am  pleased  I 
came.  I  have  been  much  interested  in  the  fine  coun- 
try and  the  good-looking  population  of  the  States 
through  which  I  have  passed.  I  am  very  desirous  to 
return  home,  and  expected  to  receive  a  letter  from 
home;  but  as  yet  have  been  disappointed. 

"The  town  of  Nashville  is  a  very  handsome  town. 
The  public  and  private  edifices  are  on  a  scale  of  mag- 
nificence. Everything  shows  the  prosperity  of  the 
country.  If  we  can  once  compose  our  differences 
with  the  North,  I  am  sure  the  slave-holding  States 
will  continue  more  and  more  to  demonstrate  the  value 
of  our  institutions,  both  in  the  wealth  and  the  refine- 
ment of  their  population." 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    335 

The  sessions  of  the  Convention  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  whole  country ;  and  the  Southern  news- 
papers made  its  proceedings  a  conspicuous  feature  of 
their  news-reports.  The  convention  adjourned  on 
June  13,  1850,  after  a  session  of  ten  days,  to  meet 
again  in  Nashville  in  the  following  November,  when 
Congress  should  have  finally  adjourned.  An  address 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  was  adopted;  and 
a  series  of  resolutions  were  agreed  upon  as  follows : 

"i.  Resolved, •  That  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  belong  to  the  people  of  the  several  States  of 
this  Union,  as  their  common  property;  that  the  citi- 
zens of  the  several  States  have  equal  rights  to  mi- 
grate with  their  property  to  these  territories  and  are 
equally  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment in  the  enjoyment  of  that  property  so  long  as 
the  territories  remain  under  the  charge  of  that  gov- 
ernment. 

"2.  Resolved,  That  Congress  has  no  power  to  ex- 
clude from  the  territory  of  the  United  States  any 
property  lawfully  held  in  the  States  of  the  Union, 
and  any  acts  which  may  be  passed  by  the  Congress  to 
effect  this  result  is  a  plain  violation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

"3.  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to 
provide  governments  for  the  territories,  since  the 
spirit  of  American  institutions  forbids  the  mainten- 
ance of  military  governments  in  time  of  peace;  and 
as  all  laws  heretofore  existing  in  territories  once  be- 
longing to  foreign  powers  which  interfere  with  the 
full  enjoyment  of  religion,  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
the  trial  by  jury,  and  all  other  rights  of  persons  and 
property  as  secured  or  recognized  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  are  necessarily  void  so  soon 
as  such  territories  become  American  territories,  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  to  make  early 
provision  for  the  enactment  of  those  laws,  which  may 
be  expedient  and  necessary  to  secure  to  the  inhabi- 


336    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

tants  of  and  emigrants  to  such  territories  the  full 
benefit  of  the  constitutional  rights  we  assert. 

"4.  Resolved,  That  to  protect  property  existing  in 
the  several  States  of  the  Union,  the  people  of  these 
States  invested  the  Federal  Government  with  the 
powers  of  war  and  negotiation,  and  of  sustaining  arm- 
ies and  navies,  and  prohibited  to  State  authorities 
the  exercise  of  the  same  powers.  They  made  no 
discrimination  in  the  protection  to  be  afforded  or  the 
description  of  the  property  to  be  defended,  nor  was 
it  allowed  to  the  Federal  Government  to  determine 
what  should  be  held  as  property.  Whatever  the 
States  deal  with  as  property,  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment is  bound  to  recognize  and  defend  as  such. 
Therefore  it  is  the  sense  of  this  convention  that  all 
acts  of  the  Federal  Government  which  tend  to  de- 
nationalize property  of  any  description  recognized 
in  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  States,  or  that  dis- 
criminate in  the  degree  and  efficiency  of  the  protection 
to  be  afforded  to  it,  or  which  weaken  or  destroy  the 
title  of  any  citizen  upon  American  territories,  are 
plain  and  palpable  violations  of  the  fundamental  law 
under  which  it  exists. 

"5.  Resolved,  That  the  slave-holding  States  cannot 
and  will  not  submit  to  the  enactment  by  Congress  of 
any  law  imposing  onerous  conditions  or  restraints 
upon  the  rights  of  masters  to  remove  with  their 
property  into  the  territories  of  the  United  States, 
or  to  any  law  making  discriminations  in  favor  of  the 
proprietors  of  other  property  against  them. 

"6.  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal 
Government  plainly  to  recognize  and  firmly  to  main- 
tain the  equal  rights  of  the  citizens  of  the  several 
States  in  the  territories  of  the  United  States,  and  to 
repudiate  the  power  to  make  a  discrimination  be- 
tween the  proprietors  of  different  species  of  prop- 
erty in  the  federal  legislation.  The  fulfilment  of  this 
duty  by  the  Federal  Government  would  greatly  tend 
to  restore  the  peace  of  the  country,  and  to  allay  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     337 

exasperation  and  excitement  which  now  exist  between 
the  different  sections  of  the  Union.  For  it  is  the 
deliberate  opinion  of  this  Convention  that  the  toler- 
ance Congress  has  given  to  the  notion  that  federal 
authority  might  be  employed  incidentally  and  indi- 
rectly to  subvert  or  weaken  the  institution  existing  in 
the  States  confessedly  beyond  federal  jurisdiction  and 
control,  is  a  main  cause  of  the  discord  which  menaces 
the  existence  of  the  Union,  and  which  has  well  nigh 
destroyed  the  efficient  action  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment itself. 

"7.  Resolved,  That  the  performance  of  this  duty 
is  required  by  the  fundamental  law  of  the  Union. 
The  equality  of  the  people  of  the  several  States  com- 
posing the  Union  cannot  be  disturbed  without  dis- 
turbing the  frame  of  the  American  institutions. 
This  principle  is  violated  in  the  denial  to  the  citizens 
of  the  slave-holding  States  of  power  to  enter  into  the 
territories  with  the  property  lawfully  acquired  in  the 
States.  The  warfare  against  this  right  is  a  war  upon 
the  Constitution.  The  defenders  of  this  right  are 
defenders  of  the  Constitution.  Those  who  deny  or 
impair  its  exercise  are  unfaithful  to  the  Constitution; 
and  if  disunion  follows  the  destruction  of  the  right, 
they  are  the  disunionists. 

"8.  Resolved,  That  the  performance  of  its  duties, 
upon  the  principle  we  declare,  would  enable  Congress 
to  remove  the  embarrassments  in  which  the  country 
is  now  involved.  The  vacant  territories  of  the 
United  States,  no  longer  regarded  as  prizes  for  sec- 
tional rapacity  and  ambition,  would  be  gradually 
occupied  by  inhabitants  drawn  to  them  by  their  in- 
terests and  feelings.  The  institutions  fitted  to  them 
would  be  naturally  applied  by  governments  formed 
on  American  ideas,  and  approved  by  the  deliberate 
choice  of  their  constituents.  The  community  would 
be  educated  and  disciplined  under  a  republican  ad- 
ministration in  habits  of  self-government,  and  fitted 

22 


338     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

for  an  association  as  a  State,  and  to  the  enjoyment 
of  a  place  in  the  Confederacy.  A  community  so 
formed  and  organized  might  well  claim  admission  to 
the  Union,  and  none  would  dispute  the  validity  of 
the  claim. 

"9.  Resolved,  That  a  recognition  of  this  principle 
would  deprive  the  questions  between  Texas  and  the 
United  States  of  their  sectional  character,  and  would 
leave  them  for  adjustment  without  disturbance  from 
sectional  prejudices  and  passions,  upon  considerations 
of  magnanimity  and  justice. 

"10.  Resolved,  That  a  recognition  of  this  prin- 
ciple would  infuse  a  spirit  of  conciliation  in  the  dis- 
cussion and  adjustment  of  all  the  subjects  of  sectional 
dispute,  which  would  afford  a  guarantee  of  an  early 
and  satisfactory  determination. 

"n.  Resolved,  That  in  the  event  a  dominant  ma- 
jority shall  refuse  to  recognize  the  great  constitu- 
tional rights  we  assert,  and  shall  continue  to  deny 
the  obligations  of  the  Federal  Government  to  main- 
tain them,  it  is  the  sense  of  this  convention  that  the 
territories  should  be  treated  as  property,  and  divided 
between  the  sections  of  the  Union,  so  that  the  rights 
of  both  sections  be  adequately  secured  in  their  re- 
spective shares.  That  we  are  aware  this  course  is 
open  to  grave  objections,  but  we  are  ready  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  adoption  of  the  line  of  36°3o'  north 
latitude,  extending  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  as  an  extreme 
concession,  upon  considerations  of  what  is  due  to  the 
stability  of  our  institutions. 

"12.  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  con- 
vention that  this  controversy  should  be  ended,  either 
by  a  recognition  of  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
Southern  people,  or  by  an  equitable  partition  of  the 
territories.  That  the  spectacle  of  a  Confederacy  of 
States,  involved  in  quarrels  over  the  fruits  of  a  war 
in  which  the  American  arms  were  crowned  with  glory, 
is  humiliating.  That  the  incorporation  of  the  Wil- 
mot  proviso,  in  the  offer  of  settlement, — a  proposi- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     339 

tion  which  fourteen  States  regard  as  disparaging  and 
dishonorable, — is  degrading  to  the  country.  A  term- 
ination to  this  controversy  by  the  disruption  of  the 
Confederacy,  or  by  the  abandonment  of  the  territories 
to  prevent  such  a  result,  would  be  a  climax  to  the 
shame  which  attaches  to  the  controversy  which  it  is  the 
paramount  duty  of  Congress  to  avoid. 

"13.  Resolved,  That  this  convention  will  not  con- 
clude that  Congress  will  adjourn  without  making  an 
adjustment  of  this  controversy;  and  in  the  condition 
in  which  the  convention  finds  the  questions  before 
Congress,  it  does  not  feel  at  liberty  to  discuss  the 
methods  suitable  for  a  resistance  to  measures  not  yet 
adopted,  which  might  involve  a  dishonor  to  the 
Southern  States." 

On  the  loth  day  of  November,  Gordon,  who  had 
returned  to  Nashville  to  attend  the  adjourned  ses- 
sion of  the  convention,  wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon  from 
that  city : 

"I  arrived  here  last  evening  without  an  accident, 
in  perfect  health.  I  came  most  of  the  way  from 
Charleston  with  some  of  the  South  Carolina  and 
Florida  delegates  to  the  convention,  among  whom 
were  Mr.  Barnwell,  Judge  Cheves,  Colonel  Gregg, 
and  Colonel  Chestnutt,  the  eulogist  of  Foote. 

"I  remained  two  days  in  Richmond,  and  saw  a 
number  of  old  acquaintances.  From  Chattanooga 
to  this  place  we  chartered  an  omnibus,  and  by  easy 
stages  passing  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  and 
sleeping  at  night,  we  reached  Nashville  with  com- 
paratively little  fatigue.  None  of  the  delegates  from 
Mississippi  have  arrived,  but  they  are  on  the  way. 
There  are  some  here  from  Georgia  and  Alabama; 
and  most  of  them  are  expected  to  arrive  to-day. 

"I  am  alone  from  Virginia  as  yet.  I  have  some 
hope  that  Messrs.  Newton,  Goode  and  Garnett  may 
be  here,  but  it  is  uncertain. 


340    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"There  had  not  been  a  drop  of  the  fine  rain  at 
Richmond  we  had  just  before  I  left  home,  and  the 
drought  and  dust  from  that  to  this  place  were  quite 
oppressive;  but  as  I  write,  it  is  raining  copiously. 
I  can  form  as  yet  no  idea  when  we  shall  adjourn,  but 
I  think  we  shall  sit  no  longer  than  we  did  before.  I 
augur  that  our  deliberations  will  be  harmonious,  and 
our  resolves  almost  unanimous." 

"This  convention,"  says  Benton,  "took  the  de- 
cisive step,  so  far  as  it  depended  upon  itself,  towards 
a  separation  of  the  States.  It  invited  the  assem- 
bling of  a  Southern  Congress.  Two  States  alone 
responded  to  that  appeal — South  Carolina  and  Mis- 
sissippi; and  the  legislatures  of  these  two  passed 
solemn  acts  to  carry  it  into  effect, — South  Carolina 
absolutely,  by  electing  her  quota  of  representatives  to 
the  proposed  Congress;  Mississippi  provisionally, 
by  subjecting  her  law  to  the  approval  of  the  people." 

In  the  reassembled  convention  at  Nashville,  in  No- 
vember, 1850,  there  were  present  delegates  from  seven 
States — two  more  States  than  at  its  first  session. 
Gordon  continued  the  sole  representative  from  Vir- 
ginia. His  colleagues,  Newton,  Goode  and  Garnett, 
whose  coming  he  had  hoped  for,  did  not  appear. 
The  other  States,  besides  Virginia,  that  were  repre- 
sented in  the  reassemblage  were  Georgia,  by  eleven 
delegates;  Alabama,  by  five;  Florida,  by  four;  Mis- 
sissippi, by  eight;  South  Carolina,  by  sixteen,  and 
Tennessee,  by  fourteen. 

The  preamble  and  resolutions  adopted  at  its  second 
session  by  the  Convention  were  as  follows : 

"We,  the  delegates  assembled  from  a  portion  of 
the  States  of  this  Confederacy,  make  this  exposi- 
tion of  the  causes  which  have  brought  us  together, 
and  of  the  rights  which  the  States  we  represent  are 
entitled  to  under  the  compact  of  the  Union. 

"We  have  amongst  us  two  races  marked  by  such 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     341 

distinctions  of  color  and  physical  and  moral  quali- 
ties as  forever  forbid  their  living  together  on  terms 
of  social  and  political  equality. 

"The  black  race  have  been  slaves  from  the  earliest 
settlement  of  our  country,  and  our  relations  of  mas- 
ter and  slave  have  grown  up  from  that  time.  A 
change  in  those  relations  must  end  in  convulsion,  and 
the  entire  ruin  of  one  or  both  races. 

"When  the  convention  was  adopted,  this  relation 
of  master  and  slave,  as  it  exists,  was  expressly 
recognized  and  guarded  in  that  instrument.  It  was  a 
great  and  vital  interest,  involving  our  very  existence 
as  a  separate  people,  then  as  well  as  now. 

"The  States  of  this  Confederacy  acceded  to  that 
compact,  each  one  for  itself,  and  ratified  it  as  States. 

"If  the  non-slaveholding  States,  who  are  parties 
to  that  compact,  disregard  its  provisions  and  endanger 
our  peace  and  existence  by  united  and  deliberate  action, 
we  have  a  right  as  States,  there  being  no  common  arbi- 
ter, to  secede. 

"The  object  of  those  who  are  urging  on  the  Fed- 
eral Government  in  its  aggressive  policy  upon  our 
domestic  institution  is,  beyond  all  doubt,  finally  to 
overthrow  and  abolish  the  existing  relation  between 
the  master  and  slave.  We  feel  authorized  to  assert 
this  from  their  own  declarations,  and  from  the  his- 
tory of  events  in  this  country  for  the  last  few  years. 

"To  abolish  slavery  or  the  slave-trade  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia — to  regulate  the  sale  and  transfer 
of  slaves  between  the  States — to  exclude  slaveholders 
with  their  property  from  the  territories — to  admit 
California  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  we 
hold  to  be  all  parts  of  the  same  system  of  measures, 
and  subordinate  to  the  end  that  they  have  in  view, 
which  is  openly  avowed  to  be  the  total  overthrow 
of  the  institution. 

"We  make  no  aggressive  move.  We  stand  upon 
the  defensive.  We  invoke  the  spirit  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  claim  its  guarantees.  Our  rights — our  in- 


342     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

dependence — the  peace  and  existence  of  our  families, 
depend  upon  the  issue. 

"The  Federal  Government  has  within  a  few  years 
acquired,  by  treaty  and  by  triumphant  war,  vast  terri- 
tories. This  has  been  done  by  the  counsel  and  the 
arms  of  all,  and  the  benefits  and  rights  belong  alike 
and  equally  to  all  the  States.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment is  but  the  common  agent  of  the  States  united, 
and  represents  their  conjoined  sovereignty  over  sub- 
ject-matter granted  and  defined  in  the  compact. 

"The  authority  it  exercises  over  all  acquired  terri- 
tory must  in  good  faith  be  exercised  for  the  equal 
benefit  of  all  the  parties.  To  prohibit  our  citizens 
from  settling  there  with  the  most  valuable  part  of  our 
property  is  not  only  degrading  to  us  as  equals,  but 
violates  our  highest  constitutional  rights. 

"Restrictions  and  prohibitions  against  the  slave- 
holding  States,  it  would  appear,  are  to  be  the  fixed 
and  settled  policy  of  the  Government;  and  those 
States  that  are  hereafter  to  be  admitted  into  the  Fed- 
eral Union  from  their  extensive  territories  will  but 
confirm  and  increase  the  power  of  the  majority;  and 
he  knows  little  of  history  who  cannot  read  our  des- 
tiny in  the  future,  if  we  fail  to  do  our  duty  now  as 
free  people. 

"We  have  been  harassed  and  insulted  by  those  who 
ought  to  have  been  our  brethren,  in  their  constant 
agitation  of  a  subject  vital  to  us  and  the  peace  of  our 
families.  We  have  been  outraged  by  their  gross 
misrepresentations  of  our  moral  and  social  habits, 
and  by  the  manner  in  which  they  have  denounced  us 
before  the  world.  We  have  had  our  property  enticed 
off,  and  the  means  of  recovery  denied  us,  by  our  co- 
states,  in  the  territories  of  the  Union,  which  we  were 
entitled  to  as  political  equals  under  the  Constitution. 
Our  peace  has  been  endangered  by  incendiary  appeals. 
The  Union,  instead  of  being  considered  a  fraternal 
bond,  has  been  used  as  the  means  of  striking  at  our 
vital  interests. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    343 

"The  admission  of  California  under  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  confirms  an  authorized  and  revo- 
lutionary seizure  of  public  domain,  and  the  exclusion 
of  near  half  the  States  of  the  Confederacy  from  equal 
rights  therein — destroys  the  line  of  thirty-six  degrees 
thirty  minutes,  which  was  originally  acquiesced  in 
as  a  matter  of  compromise  and  peace,  and  appro- 
priates to  the  Northern  States  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  square  miles  below  that  line,  and  is 
so  gross  and  palpable  a  violation  of  the  principles  of 
justice  and  equality  as  to  shake  our  confidence  in  any 
security  to  be  given  by  that  majority  who  are  now 
clothed  with  power  to  govern  the  future  destiny  of 
the  Confederacy. 

"The  recent  purchase  of  territory  by  Congress  from 
Texas,  as  low  down  as  thirty-two  degrees  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  also  indicates  that  the  boundaries  of  the 
slave-holding  States  are  fixed,  and  our  doom  pre- 
scribed, so  far  as  it  depends  upon  the  will  of  a  domi- 
nant majority,  and  nothing  now  can  save  us  from  a  de- 
graded destiny  but  the  spirit  of  freemen,  who  know 
their  rights  and  are  resolved  to  maintain  them,  be 
the  consequences  what  they  may. 

"We  have  no  powers  that  are  binding  upon  the 
States  we  represent.  But  in  order  to  produce  system 
and  concerted  action,  we  recommend  the  following 
resolutions,  viz : 

"Resolved,  That  we  have  ever  cherished  and  do 
now  cherish  a  cordial  attachment  to  the  constitutional 
Union  of  the  States,  and  that  to  preserve  and  per- 
petuate that  Union  unimpaired,  this  convention 
originated  and  has  now  reassembled. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Union  of  the  States  is  a 
Union  of  equal  and  independent  sovereignties,  and 
that  the  powers  delegated  to  the  Federal  Government 
can  be  resumed  by  the  several  States,  whenever  it 
may  seem  to  them  proper  and  necessary. 

"Resolved,  That  all  the  evils  anticipated  by  the 
South,  and  which  occasioned  this  convention  to  as- 


344    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

semble,  have  been  realized  by  the  failure  to  extend 
the  Missouri  line  of  compromise  to  the  Pacific  Ocean ; 
by  the  admission  of  California  as  a  State;  by  the  or- 
ganization of  territorial  governments  for  Utah  and 
New  Mexico,  without  giving  adequate  protection  to 
the  property  of  the  South;  by  the  dismemberment 
of  Texas;  by  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  and 
the  emancipation  of  slaves  carried  into  the  District 
of  Columbia  for  sale. 

"Resolved,  That  we  earnestly  recommend  to  all 
parties  in  the  slave-holding  states  to  refuse  to  go  into 
or  countenance  any  national  convention,  whose  ob- 
jects may  be  to  nominate  candidates  for  the  Presi- 
dency and  Vice-Presidency  of  the  United  States,  un- 
der any  party  denomination  whatever,  until  our  con- 
stitutional rights  are  secured. 

"Resolved,  That  in  view  of  these  aggressions,  and 
of  those  threatened  and  impending,  we  earnestly 
recommend  to  the  slave-holding  States  to  meet  in 
a  congress  or  convention,  to  be  held  at  such  time  and 
place  as  the  States  desiring  to  be  represented  may 
designate,  to  be  composed  of  double  the  number  of 
their  Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  intrusted  with  full  power  and  au- 
thority to  deliberate  and  act  with  the  view  and  inten- 
tion of  arresting  further  aggression,  and,  if  possible, 
of  restoring  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  South,  and 
if  not,  to  provide  for  their  future  safety  and  inde- 
pendence. 

"Resolved,  That  the  president  of  this  convention 
be  requested  to  forward  copies  of  the  foregoing  pre- 
amble and  resolutions  to  the  Governors  of  each  of  the 
slave-holding  States  of  the  Union,  to  be  laid  before 
their  respective  legislatures  at  their  earliest  assem- 
bling." 

General  Gideon  J.  Pillow,  a  member  of  the  con- 
vention, offered  a  series  of  resolutions,  acquiescing  in 
the  bills  included  in  the  Compromise  Measure  of 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     345 

1850,  but  recommending  a  commercial  boycott  of 
the  Northern  States  in  the  event  that  the  compromise 
acts  should  not  be  lived  up  to  in  good  faith ;  and  fur- 
ther providing  for  the  call  of  a  convention  of  slave- 
holding  States  in  the  event  of  further  aggression  by 
the  North  in  the  way  of  repealing  the  fugitive  slave 
law,  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
or  in  any  State,  interfering  with  the  basis  of  repre- 
sentation fixed  on  "the  Federal  numbers,"  or  with 
the  transportation  of  slaves  from  one  slave-holding 
State  to  another. 

Pillow's  resolutions  were  voted  down,  and  those 
given  at  length  above  were  adopted. 

In  the  National  Intelligencer,  a  paper  bitterly  hos- 
tile to  the  Southern  Convention,  appeared  the  fol- 
lowing brief  accounts  of  the  November  session : 

"Nashville,  Tennessee,  June  10. — Mr.  Gordon 
said  that  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Proposi- 
tions, he  had  a  report  to  make  on  certain  resolutions 
referred  to  him." 

"Nashville,  November  16,  1850. — General  Gor- 
don, of  Virginia,  from  the  Committee  on  Resolu- 
tions, reported  a  series  of  a  strong  character,  and 
recommending  a  Southern  Congress  at  such  time  as 
the  States  may  designate.  The  proposition  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  that  introduced  by  the  delega- 
tion from  Alabama." 

"Seventh  Day,  Southern  Convention. — General 
Gordon,  of  Virginia  moved  that  the  preamble  and 
resolutions  which  had  been  before  reported  be  re- 
committed to  the  committee.  Mr.  McDaniel,  of 
Georgia  moved  the  previous  question,  which  was  put 
and  carried  without  dissent. 

"Mr.  Gordon,  of  Virginia,  gave  notice  that  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions  would  hold  its  meeting 
forthwith.  Mr.  McDaniel  of  Georgia,  then  offered 
a  preamble  and  resolutions  which  were  referred; 
and  the  convention  took  a  recess  for  half  an  hour. 

"On  the  reassembling  of  the  convention  General 


346    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Gordon  of  Virginia  stated  that  he  was  instructed  by 
the  Committee  on  Resolutions  to  report  that  they 
had  adopted  the  preamble  as  reported  by  the  com- 
mittee on  Saturday,  and  had  substituted  other  reso- 
lutions. They  are  as  follows."  (Here  follow  the 
preamble  and  resolutions  as  heretofore  given.) 
"Mr.  Gordon,  of  Virginia,  moved  the  previous  ques- 
tion, and  on  a  call  of  the  States  six  voted  yea,  and 
one  (Tennessee)  nay.  The  question  then  recurring 
on  the  adoption  of  the  report  of  the  committee,  it 
was  adopted  by  the  same  vote." 

The  Nashville  Banner  of  the  I9th  instant  con- 
cludes the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Nash- 
ville Convention  by  giving  a  full  list  of  its  members. 
Their  names  are  as  follows: 

Virginia :  Gen.  Wm.  F.  Gordon  ( I  )  ;  Alabama : 
R.  Chapman,  Geo.  W.  Williams,  C.  C.  Clay,  Sen., 
Tas.  M.  Calhoun,  T.  Buford,  (5)  ;  Florida:  C.  H. 
Dupont,  Jean  H.  Verdier,  P.  W.  White,  John  H. 
McGehee  (4);  Mississippi:  J.  M.  Acker,  J.  J. 
Davenport,  A.  Hutcheson,  W.  H.  Kilpatrick,  Pear- 
son Smith,  Thos.  J.  Wharton,  J.  C.  Thompson,  Chas. 
McLaron,  ( 8 ) ;  Georgia :  J.  G.  McWharter,  John 
A.  Jones,  John  D.  Stell,  W.  J.  Parker,  George  R. 
Hunter,  Robert  Bledsoe,  James  N.  Bethune,  John 

C.  Sneed,  Charles  J.  McDonald,  H.  I.  Benning,  Dr. 
Daniels  ( 1 1 )  ;    Tennessee :    A.  V.  Broon,  G.  J.  Pil- 
low, A.  O.  P.  Nicholson,  A.  J.  Donelson,  J.  B.  Cle- 
ments, Thos.  Claiborne,  Dr.  J.  W.  Esselman,  W.  G. 
Harding,  T.  McGavock,  Thomas  Martin,  W.  H. 
Polk,  F.  McClaren,  T.  D.  Mosely,  L.  P.  Cheatham 
(14);    South   Carolina:    Langdon   Cheves,   W.   J. 
Hanna,  F.  W.  Pickens,  W.  C.  Young,  J.  N.  Whit- 
ner,  Jas.  Bradley,  Samuel  Otterson,  Drayton  Nance, 

D.  F.  Jamison,  Maxy  Gregg,  G.  A.  Trenholm,  John 
S.  Wilson,  James  Chestnutt,  Jr.,  Wm.  DuBose,  R. 
W.  Barnwell,  R.  B.  Rhett  (16). 

The  congressional  compromise  bills  had  become  a 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     347 

law  before  the  convention  reassembled;  and  though 
Mississippi  and  South  Carolina  took  active  steps  to- 
wards the  convocation  of  the  Southern  Congress, 
the  repudiation  by  the  United  States  Congress  of  the 
Wilmot  Proviso,  and  the  provision  for  a  rigid  fugi- 
tive slave  law  in  the  Compromise  measures,  served 
to  defer  the  separation  which  had,  however,  become 
inevitable.  The  Nashville  Convention  was  the 
cradle  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

His  attendance  upon  the  convention,  in  which  he 
was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures,  was  Gor- 
don's last  appearance  on  the  stage  of  national  poli- 
tics. Before  the  decade  was  ended  he  had  died;  and 
in  two  years  after  its  ending  one  of  his  eight  sons  had 
been  sent  as  the  special  emissary  of  a  representative 
convention  of  Virginians  at  Richmond  to  convey  to 
Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the  Confederate  States  of 
America,  the  ancient  Commonwealth's  Ordinance  of 
Secession ; — while  six  of  those  eight  sons  had  entered 
the  armies  of  the  Southern  Confederacy;  and  one  of 
them  ere  the  war  between  the  States  was  a  year  old, 
had  fallen  at  the  head  of  his  charging  column,  at 
Malvern  Hill,  in  the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  Seven 
Days  fights  about  Richmond. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

MANNERS     AND     CUSTOMS     OF     CONGRESSMEN 

HOUSTON'S  ASSAULT  ON  STANBERY — THE  NEWS- 
PAPERS. 

The  manners  and  customs  of  the  men  in  public 
life  during  the  period  of  Gordon's  service  in  Con- 
gress should  not  be  without  interest  for  a  later  genera- 
tion. In  the  matter  of  dress  it  was  not  uncommon 
or  unfashionable  with  certain  members  of  Congress 
to  wear  homespun  clothes;  and  reference  has  been 
made  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  Gordon's  "Virginia 
cloth"  suit,  which  had  so  pleased  his  commanding 
officer,  General  Cocke,  during  the  war  of  1812.  One 
of  Mr.  Clay's  earliest  resolutions  in  the  Kentucky 
legislature  recommended  that  the  members  should 
wear  only  such  clothes  as  were  the  product  of  do- 
mestic manufacture.  This  measure  of  Mr.  Clay's  was 
denounced  by  Humphrey  Marshall  as  "the  clap- 
trap of  a  demagogue,"  a  characterization  which 
provoked  a  fierce  altercation,  and  finally  resulted  in 
a  duel,  in  which  both  participants  were  slightly 
wounded.  The  spirit  of  frugality  prevailed  es- 
pecially among  the  State-Rights  men  of  the  period. 
As  they  did  not  desire  to  depend  upon  the  Federal 
Government  for  the  laws  affecting  their  daily  per- 
sonal life,  so  they  aspired  to  be  independent  of  the 
world,  as  far  as  it  might  be  possible,  in  an  economic 
way;  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  virtue  of 
frugality  has  been  from  the  first  extolled  in  all  the 
constitutions  of  Virginia.  Mr.  Clay  epitomized  the 
sentiment  and  the  custom,  when  he  said:  "A  judi- 
cious American  farmer  in  his  household  may  manu- 
facture whatever  is  requisite  for  his  family.  He 
squanders  but  little  in  the  gewgaws  of  Europe.  He 
presents  in  epitome  what  the  nation  ought  to  be  in 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     349 

extenso.  Their  manufactories  should  bear  the  same 
proportion  and  effect  the  same  object  in  relation  to 
the  whole  community,  which  the  part  of  his  house- 
hold employed  in  domestic  manufacturing  bears  to 
the  whole  family.  It  is  certainly  desirable  that  the 
exports  of  the  country  should  continue  to  be  the  sur- 
plus production  of  tillage,  and  not  become  those  of 
manufacturing  establishments.  But  it  is  important 
to  diminish  our  imports;  to  furnish  ourselves  with 
clothing  made  by  our  own  industry;  and  to  cease  to 
be  dependent  for  the  very  coats  we  wear,  upon  a 
foreign  and  perhaps  inimical  country.  The  nation 
that  imports  its  clothing  from  abroad  is  but  little  less 
dependent  than  if  it  imported  its  bread." 

Mr.  Clay's  views  developed  later  into  an  advocacy 
of  a  tariff  as  a  part  of  his  "American  System";  but 
Gordon's  admiration  and  regard  for  homespun 
clothes  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  they  were  the  pro- 
duct of  the  plantation.  The  "local  self-government" 
which  he  always  advocated  was  but  a  part  of  the 
local  and  individual  self-reliance,  which  lay  at  the 
very  foundation  of  the  Jeffersonian  creed  of  govern- 
mental ethics.  Through  no  affectation,  therefore,  but 
from  a  spirit  of  patriotic  pride,  it  was  a  custom  of 
Gordon's,  and  of  many  of  his  colleagues,  to  wear 
homespun  costumes;  and  these  were  usually  cut  after 
the  fashion  of  the  modern  "dress  clothes" — a  "swal- 
low-tail coat,"  ornamented  with  plain  brass  buttons, 
and  the  long  trousers  which  had  now  succeeded  the 
colonial  knee-breeches,  that  had  continued  through 
the  earlier  administrations  of  Washington,  Adams 
and  Jefferson. 

The  Continental  Congress,  following  the  example 
yet  pursued  in  the  English  House  of  Commons,  had 
been  accustomed  to  sit  in  session  with  their  hats  on; 
and  this  custom  came  down  to  Andrew  Jackson's 
time.  "It  was  thought  to  be  a  very  great  honor 
for  the  House  to  'uncover'  for  anything  or  anybody," 
says  the  author  of  "The  American  Congress,"  who 


350    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

mentions  this  habit  of  the  body.  "The  Speaker," 
he  continues,  "would  sit  in  his  chair  all  through  a 
session  with  his  hat  on,  but  when  he  rose  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  House  to  any  matter  he  would  gen- 
erally doff  his  hat.  About  1830  'cloak  rooms'  were 
introduced,  and  gradually  the  members  discontinued 
the  practice  of  wearing  their  hats  during  a  session." 
A  member  of  the  House  some  years  later  inveighed 
in  a  speech  upon  the  burdens,  which  in  his  day  had 
come  to  be  the  share  of  the  members  of  Congress, 
as  compared  with  the  ease  and  leisure  with  which  the 
earlier  Congressmen  had  been  used  to  transact  the 
public  business.  "It  has  grown  into  an  established 
usage,"  he  said,  "for  a  member  to  publish  his  speeches 
in  pamphlet  form,  and  distribute  the  same  among 
his  constituents.  To  this  end  he  must  write  out  his 
speeches,  superintend  the  printing,  (aye,  and  pay 
for  it,  too) ,  compare  the  proof  sheets,  and  when  the 
little  pamphlets  have  been  enveloped,  he  must  go  to 
work  and  frank  and  direct  them  by  the  thousand  and 
ten  thousand,  and  after  all  be  faulted  for  not  sending 
out  more  of  them.  The  onerous  labor  incident  to 
this  operation  often  occupies  the  attention  of  members 
while  the  House  is  in  session,  and  confusion  and  waste 
of  time  in  calls  of  committees  or  of  the  House  is  the 
necessary  result.  And  not  only  this,  but  he  is  ex- 
pected to  frank,  direct  and  send  tens  of  thousands  of 
speeches  and  documents  furnished  at  the  cost  of  the 
government.  To  accomplish  this  he  will  sit  at  his 
desk  in  the  hall  franking  and  directing  while  a  motion 
is  made  and  stated,  a  resolution  offered  and  read,  or 
a  bill  or  amendment  reported  to  the  clerk;  and  when 
he  finds  a  vote  about  to  be  taken  he  throws  down  his 
pen,  perfectly  unconscious  of  the  matter  before  the 
House,  and  of  course,  calls  for  the  reading  of  the 
proposition.  Time  is  wasted  in  reading  it.  So  we 

g°u 

"Sir,   forty  years  ago,   our  predecessors  came  to 
this  hall  every  day  in  full  dress  at  twelve  o'clock, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     351 

sat  at  their  desks  two  or  three  hours  without  shaking 
the  powder  from  their  locks,  rumpling  the  ruffles 
which  garnished  their  bosoms,  soiling  their  fingers 
with  ink,  or  compromising  their  personal  dignity. 
How  different  it  is  now !  So  soon  as  the  committees 
act  upon  the  propositions  before  them,  and  bring 
the  same  before  the  House,  or  soon  thereafter,  we 
change  the  hour  of  meeting  to  eleven  A.  M.,  and 
afterwards  to  ten  A.  M. ;  and  we  adjourn  at  various 
hours — generally  from  four  to  ten  o'clock  p.  M. 
The  mornings  are  occupied  in  writing  letters,  frank- 
ing and  directing  documents,  etc.,  or  in  attendance 
upon  the  committees  to  which  we  belong.  When  the 
hour  of  meeting  arrives,  it  finds  us  in  the  midst  of  a 
letter  or  with  a  pile  of  documents  before  us.  These 
we  despatch,  and  away  for  the  Capitol, — at  what 
in  Indiana  we  call  a  long  lope — not  in  full  dress,  by 
any  means." 

Party  feeling  ran  very  high,  and  occasionally 
charges  reflecting  on  the  personal  or  political  char- 
acter or  conduct  of  adversaries  were  made  by  poli- 
ticians through  the  medium  of  the  newspapers  or 
upon  the  floor  of  legislative  bodies  in  debate.  The 
result  was  not  infrequently  a  collision  or  a  duel. 
One  of  the  most  famous  of  these  duels  was  that  be- 
tween Mr.  Clay  and  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  grow- 
ing out  of  the  characterization  by  the  latter  of  the 
political  alliance  between  Clay  and  Adams  as  the 
combination  of  "Blifil  and  Black-George — the  Puri- 
tan and  the  black-leg" — an  allusion  founded  upon  the 
lives  of  two  of  the  characters  in  Fielding's  "Tom 
Jones."  Another  and  far  more  tragic  one  was  that 
between  Graves  and  Cilley,  which  resulted  in  the 
death  of  one  of  the  principals — a  bloody  conclusion 
for  which  Mr.  Wise  of  Virginia,  who  was  a  second 
in  the  duel,  was,  as  heretofore  stated,  unjustly 
charged  with  responsibility  by  his  political  adver- 
saries. 

Many  men  went  armed,  either  with  dirks  or  sword- 


352     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

canes;  and  this  was  especially  the  case  with  those 
from  the  far  South  and  Southwest.  A  highly  in- 
teresting and  dramatic  episode,  which  occupied  a  con- 
siderable length  of  time  for  its  final  disposition,  oc- 
curred during  the  first  session  of  the  22d  Congress, 
of  which  Gordon  was  a  member.  This  was  the  trial 
of  Samuel  Houston,  the  Texan  hero,  for  a  breach  of 
the  privileges  of  the  House  in  assaulting  and  beating 
Mr.  Stanbery  of  Ohio,  who  had  taken  advantage  of 
the  exemption  of  members  of  Congress  from  being 
called  to  account  for  words  spoken  in  debate.  Hous- 
ton, who  was  even  then  a  notable  and  picturesque 
personage,  afterwards  became  the  first  President  of 
the  Republic  of  Texas;  and  when  Texas  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  State,  he  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  as  one  of  its  two  first  Senators.  When 
he  came  to  the  Senate  in  1846,  he  is  described  as  "a 
large,  fine-looking,  rather  eccentric  man,  who  usually 
wore  a  very  conspicuous  costume,  made  up  of  a  big 
Mexican  sombrero,  a  blue  coat  with  brass  buttons, 
a  flaming  red  vest,  and  buff  pantaloons."  At  the 
time  of  his  encounter  with  Stanbery  he  wore  the  cos- 
tume of  the  Indians  with  whom  he  had  been  living, 
and  on  account  of  whom  his  difficulty  with  the  Ohio 
member  originated. 

Houston's  career  had  already  been  an  unusual  and 
checkered  one.  He  was  a  native  of  Rockbridge 
County,  Virginia,  and  was  sprung  from  that  sturdy 
Scotch-Irish  strain  of  Valley  Ulstermen,  who  have 
given  to  the  Union  so  many  of  its  illustrious  names. 
He  had  been  a  major-general  of  the  Tennessee  troops, 
had  served  in  Congress  from  1823  to  1827,  and  had 
been  Governor  of  Tennessee.  In  1829  he  had  mar- 
ried a  young  woman  of  that  State,  and  separated  from 
her  a  few  weeks  after  his  marriage,  without  any  ex- 
planation save  that  his  conduct  did  not  reflect  upon 
her  character.  He  became  very  unpopular  on  this 
account;  and  leaving  the  State  of  Tennessee  went 
back  to  live  with  his  Cherokee  friends,  in  whose 


353 

interest  he  had  now  returned  to  Washington.  Stan- 
bery  on  the  floor  of  the  House  charged  Houston  with 
attempting  to  get  a  fraudulent  contract  with  the 
Government  for  furnishing  supplies  to  the  Indians. 
The  account  of  the  Ohio  man's  accusation  was  pub- 
lished in  the  National  Intelligencer.  Houston  sent 
Stanbery  a  note  by  Cave  Johnson,  another  member, 
requesting  to  know  if  his  name  had  been  used  in  de- 
bate by  the  latter;  and  if  so,  whether  the  newspaper 
had  correctly  quoted  his  remarks.  Stanbery,  instead 
of  replying  to  Houston,  addressed  a  communication 
to  Johnson,  saying,  "I  cannot  recognize  the  right  of 
Mr.  Houston  to  make  the  request."  What  appears 
to  have  happened  thereafter  is  graphically  narrated 
in  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Alexander  Buckner,  a  Sen- 
ator of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Missis- 
sippi, who,  after  having  been  sworn  on  behalf  of 
Houston,  who  had  been  summoned  to  answer  to  a 
breach  of  the  privilege  of  the  House,  testified  as  fol- 
lows: 

"On  the  evening  of  the  I3th,  I  think,  after  tea  was 
over  at  my  boarding-house,  I  stepped  into  the  room 
of  Mr.  Grundy;  we  sat  there  alone  conversing  for 
a  few  moments.  Governor  Houston  entered  the 
outward  door,  and  passed  down  the  passage,  intend- 
ing, as  I  thought,  to  pass  the  door  of  Mr.  Grundy, 
which  was  partly  open  at  that  time;  as  he  came  op- 
posite the  door,  he  halted  and  looked  in;  I  spoke 
to  him  and  asked  him  into  the  room;  we  indulged 
a  while  in  idle  playful  conversation.  Mr.  Blair, 
who  was  in  the  adjoining  room,  in  a  few  minutes 
stepped  in  also.  Governor  Houston  was  relating 
some  anecdotes,  which  occupied  our  attention  some 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  when  Mr.  Blair  and  myself 
rose  to  retire;  we  walked  out  of  the  room,  it  being  a 
very  fine  evening,  and  turned  carelessly  toward  the 
23 


354    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

outward  door,  not  having  any  particular  object  in 
view.  Governor  Houston  came  after  us,  and,  as 
he  stepped  out  of  the  door,  took  each  of  us  by  the 
arm,  one  on  each  side  of  him,  and  bore  us  up  the 
Avenue.  We  continued  in  light  conversation,  walk- 
ing slowly,  till  we  came  to  the  cross  street  which  runs 
up  to  the  City  Hall,  across  the  Avenue  at  the  end 
of  the  brick  pavement.  When  we  got  to  that  place, 
Mr.  Blair  observed  that  we  had  gone  far  enough; 
we  had  gone  half  way  with  Houston,  and  that  to  be 
polite,  he  ought  to  go  back  with  us.  Houston  an- 
swered, no;  saying,  I  think,  that  he  had  company, 
and  must  go  back.  At  that  time  we  all  faced  about, 
Houston  was  rather  in  the  rear,  Mr.  Blair  a  little 
in  advance  on  the  right;  after  we  faced  about  Mr. 
Blair  moved  off  very  briskly,  without  waiting  for  me 
to  go  with  him.  I  was  surprised  at  this  movement, 
and  asked  Houston  what  makes  Blair  go  off  so  fast. 
Houston  was  standing  not  directly  facing  the  palings, 
but  rather  quartering  towards  it,  and  quartering  to 
me;  without  answering  my  question  he  appeared  to 
shift  the  position  of  his  feet.  I  saw  nothing  at  the 
time,  but  soon  discovered  a  gentleman  coming  across 
the  Avenue,  and  pretty  near  to  us,  and  near  to  the 
pavement;  at  the  time  I  did  not  recognize  the  in- 
dividual when  I  first  observed  him,  but  as  he  ap- 
proached nearer,  and  was  in  the  act  of  putting  his  foot 
upon  the  pavement,  I  discovered  it  to  be  Mr.  Stan- 
bery.  It  occurred  immediately  to  me  that  there 
would  be  a  difficulty  between  them,  having  understood 
previously  that  there  had  been  dissatisfaction  between 
them.  Houston  did  not  reply  to  my  question;  as 
Stanbery  approached  nearer,  he  appeared  to  halt  in 
his  pace.  Houston  asked  if  that  was  Mr.  Stanbery; 
he  replied  very  politely,  and  bowing  at  the  same  time, 
Tes,  sir.'  Then,'  said  Houston,  'you  are  the 
damned  rascal';  and,  with  that,  struck  him  with  a 
stick  which  he  held  in  his  hand.  Stanbery  threw  up 
his  hands  over  his  head,  and  staggered  back,  his  hat 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     355 

fell  off,  and  he  exclaimed,  'Oh,  don't.'  Houston  con- 
tinued to  follow  him  up,  and  continued  to  strike  him ; 
after  receiving  several  severe  blows,  Stanbery  turned, 
as  I  thought,  to  run  off.  Houston,  at  that  moment, 
sprung  upon  him  in  the  rear;  Stanbery's  arms  hang- 
ing down  apparently  defenceless ;  he  seized  him,  and 
attempted  to  throw  him  but  was  not  able  to  do  so. 
Stanbery  carried  him  about  on  the  pavement  some 
little  time;  whether  he  extricated  himself,  or  Hous- 
ton thrust  him  from  him,  I  am  not  able  to  determine. 
I  thought  he  thrust  him  from  him.  As  he  passed 
him  he  struck  him,  and  gave  him  a  trip :  Stanbery 
fell ;  when  he  fell  he  still  continued  to  hollow ;  indeed 
he  hollowed  all  the  time  pretty  much,  except  when 
they  were  scuffling.  I  saw  Stanbery,  after  having  re- 
ceived several  blows,  put  out  both  hands  in  this  way; 
he  then  lying  on  his  back.  I  did  not  discover  what 
was  in  his  hands,  or  if  anything  was,  but  I  heard  a 
sound  like  the  snapping  of  a  gun-lock,  and  I  saw  par- 
ticles of  fire.  Houston  appeared  to  take  hold  of 
Stanbery's  hands,  and  took  something  from  them 
which  I  could  not  see;  after  that,  Houston  stood  up 
more  erect,  still  beating  Stanbery  with  a  stick  over 
the  head,  arms,  and  sides;  Stanbery  still  kept  his 
hands  spread  out.  After  Houston's  giving  him  sev- 
eral other  blows,  he  lay  on  his  back  and  put  up  his 
feet;  Houston  then  struck  him  elsewhere.  Mr.  Stan- 
bery, after  having  received  several  blows,  ceased  to 
hollow,  and  lay,  as  I  thought,  perfectly  still.  All 
this  time  I  had  not  spoken  to  either  of  the  parties,  or 
interfered  in  any  manner  whatever.  I  now  thought 
Stanbery  was  badly  hurt,  or  perhaps  killed,  from  the 
manner  in  which  he  lay:  I  stepped  up  to  Houston  to 
tell  him  to  desist,  but  without  being  spoken  to,  he 
quit  of  his  own  accord.  Mr.  Stanbery  then  got  up 
on  his  feet;  and  I  then  saw  the  pistol  in  the  right  hand 
of  Governor  Houston,  for  the  first  time;  some  alter- 
cation passed  between  them.  Houston  observed  that 
he  had  taken  the  pistol  from  Stanbery.  Mr.  Stan- 


356    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

bery,  about  that  time,  asked  Houston  why  he  at- 
tempted to  assassinate  him  in  the  night?  Houston 
replied  he  had  not  attempted  to  assassinate  him,  but 
had  chastised  him  for  having  traduced  his  reputa- 
tion. By  this  time,  a  crowd  had  gathered  round; 
and  some  person,  I  do  not  know  who,  spoke  to  Hous- 
ton. Houston  replied  that  he  attended  to  his  own 
business,  and  that  he  had  chastised  the  damned  scoun- 
drel; if  he  had  offended  the  law,  he  would  answer 
for  what  he  had  done;  he  repeated  that  he  had  dis- 
armed him,  and  borne  off  his  pistol.  Houston  then 
walked  off,  and  left  me;  then,  after  standing  for  a 
few  moments,  I  walked  off  and  left  Stanbery  stand- 
ing with  the  crowd." 

It  appeared  from  the  testimony  of  another  witness 
that  Houston  was  armed  with  a  sword-cane,  which 
was  disclosed,  not  by  his  attempting  to  draw  the 
sword,  but  by  the  lower  part  of  the  cane  which  con- 
stituted the  sheath  flying  off  while  he  was  in  the  act 
of  striking  Stanbery  with  it. 

The  trial  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  which 
lasted  nearly  a  month,  excited  great  interest;  and 
during  its  progress  ladies  were  "admitted  within  the 
hall."  The  judgment  of  the  House,  indicated  by  a 
vote  of  ninety-six  to  eighty-four,  was  that  Houston 
should  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  the  House  and  re- 
primanded by  the  Speaker  for  contempt  and  a  viola- 
tion of  the  privileges  of  the  House,  and  then  dis- 
charged from  custody.  Gordon  voted  with  the  min- 
ority against  the  reprimand.  The  sentiment  of  most 
of  the  Southern  members  was  that  although  the  privi- 
lege of  the  House  forbade  members  being  called  to 
account  for  words  spoken  in  debate,  yet  no  member 
should  speak  words  in  debate  for  which  he  was  un- 
willing to  hold  himself  responsible.  Houston  re- 
ceived the  reprimand,  after  filing  a  written  protest 
denying  the  jurisdiction  of  the  House  to  try  him,  and 
was  discharged  from  custody. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     357 

The  National  Intelligencer,  in  which  had  appeared 
the  account  of  Stanbery's  speech,  that  gave  such  um- 
brage to  Governor  Houston,  was  conducted  by  Wil- 
liam Winston  Seaton,  a  Virginian  who  was  descended 
from  the  ancient  Scotch  family  of  Seaton,  and  had 
received  his  education  when  a  youth  in  Richmond 
from  a  Scotch  nobleman,  the  Earl  of  Findlater,  who 
at  that  time  was  a  refugee  from  his  native  land,  and 
taught  a  school  in  the  Virginia  capital.  Seaton  and 
his  partner,  Joseph  Gales,  Jr.,  a  North  Carolinian 
who  was  Seaton's  brother-in-law,  and  also  a  brilliant 
writer,  were  for  many  years  the  official  reporters  of 
Congress,  and  published  "the  leading  debates  and 
incidents"  of  its  sessions  in  the  "Register  of  Debates." 
Their  newspaper,  the  National  Intelligencer,  after 
the  organization  of  the  Whig  party,  became  the  re- 
presentative journal  of  that  faction,  and  exercised  a 
great  political  influence.  It  was  an  aphorism  in  the 
later  days  of  Whiggery,  that  "if  a  man  were  found 
dead  with  a  copy  of  the  National  Intelligencer  in  his 
pocket,  though  he  were  otherwise  unknown,  he  might 
be  counted  to  be  a  Whig  and  a  gentleman" — a  saying 
which  had  its  parallel  in  the  story  that  was  current 
at  an  even  later  period,  to  the  effect  that  a  certain 
veteran  Whig  editor  of  Petersburg,  Virginia,  upon 
being  asked  by  an  ingenuous  youth,  if  there  were  any 
gentlemen  in  the  Democratic  party,  said,  after  a 
pause,  and  thoughtfully,  "There  may  be  a  few,  my 
son ;  but,  they  are  in  damned  bad  company  I" 

The  journalism  of  the  period  was  of  a  very  differ- 
ent character  from  that  of  the  later  generations. 
Long  political  essays,  signed  with  the  classic  names 
of  Greek  or  Roman  statesmen,  and  discussing  the 
profoundest  questions  of  constitutional  government, 
continued  to  fill  the  columns  of  the  newspaper  press 
to  a  comparatively  late  period  in  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  But  the  most  characteristic  feat- 
ure of  this  old-fashioned  journalism  was  the  person- 
ality of  the  editors  of  the  several  prominent  journals. 


358     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

The  National  Intelligencer  meant  Gales  and  Seaton, 
as  later  the  New  York  Herald  meant  Bennett,  and 
the  Tribune  meant  Greeley. 

In  Virginia  for  forty  years  there  was  no  more 
powerful  political  influence  than  that  exercised  by 
Thomas  Ritchie  through  the  columns  of  the  Rich- 
mond Enquirer;  and  no  cause  had  anywhere  in  the 
Union  an  abler  champion  than  did  that  of  the  State- 
Rights  Democracy  in  his  potential  advocacy  of  its 
principles.  He  began  the  publication  of  his  paper 
in  Richmond  in  1804;  and  was  the  editor  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  "Debates  of  the  Convention  of  1829- 
1830."  He  was  king-maker  among  the  politicians; 
and  the  young  and  talented  men  of  his  party  in  the 
State  always  received  from  him,  through  the  En- 
quirer, recognition  of  their  talents  and  energies,  and 
a  helping  hand.  Gordon  was  among  his  many  and 
ardent  admirers,  and  was  greatly  interested  in  his 
career. 

Mr.  Ritchie's  long  experience  as  an  editor,  his  ac- 
quaintance with  public  men,  and  his  prominence  and 
influence  in  the  councils  of  his  party,  made  him  during 
the  larger  part  of  his  career  one  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous figures  in  the  State  and  national  politics  of  his 
times;  while  it  has  been  not  inaptly  said  of  the  En- 
quirer under  his  editorship,  that  the  history  of  Vir- 
ginia for  forty  years  might  be  written  from  its  col- 
umns. 

Mr.  Ritchie's  great  journalistic  antagonist  in  Vir- 
ginia was  John  Hampden  Pleasants,  a  son  of  Gov- 
ernor James  Pleasants,  who  founded  and  was  for 
many  years  the  editor  of  the  Richmond  Whig,  the 
chief  exponent  of  Whig  doctrines  in  the  Common- 
wealth for  more  than  two  decades.  Mr.  Ritchie's 
son,  Thomas  Ritchie,  Junior,  and  Mr.  Pleasants  en- 
gaged in  a  duel  that  unfortunately  grew  out  of 
political  articles  in  their  respective  papers,  and  in  this 
encounter  the  latter  was  killed. 

The  state  of  party  feeling,  as  illustrated  in  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     359 

newspaper  press,  during  the  debate  on  the  Deposit 
Banks  bill  in  1835,  is  set  out  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  supporter  of  the  Sub-Treasury  amendment  in  a 
speech  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  which  may  be  taken 
as  an  extreme  presentation  of  one  who  was  smarting 
under  what  he  regarded  as  the  outrageous  license  of 
contemporary  journalism. 

"Mr.  Clayton,  of  Georgia,"  says  the  official  report, 
"rose  and  said:  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  two  objects 
in  wishing  to  address  the  House  upon  the  question 
under  debate;  the  first  is  to  justify  myself  against 
a  calumny,  and  the  other  is  to  defend  my  vote  against 
inconsistency.  I  am  accused  abroad,  and  what  is 
worse,  at  home  too,  of  being  bank-bought.  This  is 
the  charge  against  every  man  who  dares  to  exercise 
the  least  liberality  of  sentiment  or  independence  of 
opinion,  and,  to  use  a  familiar  phrase,  if  he  does  not 
walk  the  chalks  exactly  as  they  are  drawn,  he  is 
everything  but  an  honest  man.  He  is  accused  of 
bribery,  speculation,  assassination,  corruption,  fraud, 
lying,  deceit,  and  indeed  every  species  of  meanness. 

"Mr.  Speaker,  if  the  world  believed  everything 
that  is  said  of  public  characters  in  America,  they  must 
consider  Congress  as  a  den  of  petty  rogues,  and  the 
nation  as  a  province  of  polished  pick-pockets.  Let 
me,  for  the  amusement  of  the  House,  present  them 
with  a  true  picture  of  their  character,  as  portrayed 
by  the  public  journals  of  the  country,  those  faithful 
registers  of  all  sorts  of  information,  those  truthful 
reflectors  of  public  morals,  and  not  less  charitable 
memorials  of  private  character.  And  to  this  end  I 
would  ask  you  to  go  with  me,  in  your  imagination, 
to  Europe,  to  a  large  reading-room,  for  instance,  in 
London.  Suppose  a  large  collection  of  people  as- 
sembled in  that  place,  and,  as  is  not  unfrequently  the 
case,  one  more  bold  than  the  rest  calls  the  attention 
of  the  crowd  to  some  interesting  extracts  from  a 
North  American  paper  just  from  the  seat  of  Govern- 
ment of  that  great  Republic,  that  land  of  liberty,  of 


360    WILLIAM  IFTZHUGH  GORDON 

equal  laws,  of  pure  institutions,  and  whose  glorious 
traits  every  Fourth  of  July  celebration  'rings  through 
the  world  with  loud  applause.'  '  He  reads : 

"Extract  from  a  Fourth  of  July  oration. 

"  'Here  in  this  land  of  liberty  the  oppressed  of  all 
nations,  fleeing  from  the  tyranny  of  the  old  world, 
may  find  an  asylum  in  the  purity  of  our  Government, 
the  sanctity  of  its  principles,  the  patriotism  of  its 
statesmen,  and  a  certain  protection  in  the  equality 
of  its  laws.' 

11 A  toast  on  that  occasion. 

"  'The  American  States — confederated  upon  prin- 
ciples of  liberty,  justice  and  equality,  present  a  sacred 
refuge  to  all  who  shall  fly  from  the  force,  the  follies, 
and  the  frauds  of  priest-ridden  Europe.' 

"The  assembly  all  cry  out,  'Glorious  people ! 
Magnanimous  nation!  Happy  government!'  But 
stop,  says  the  reader,  let  us  see  what  is  on  the  other 
side.  He  reads: 

"Extracts  from  the  President's  letter  to  one  of  his 
Secretaries. 

'The  deposits  must  be  removed  before  Congress 
meets,  or  the  Bank  will  bribe  enough  of  the  mem- 
bers to  prevent  it.' 

"Extract  from  the  Government  press. 
'  'Senators  Clay  and  Webster  are  the  feed  law- 
yers of  the  Bank,  and  hence,  their  great  exertions  in 
its  behalf.' 

"From  the  same. 

'  'Senator  Calhoun  instigated  the  assassination  of 
the  President.' 

"From  the  same. 

'  'Senator  Tipton  has  valuable  lands  on  the  Wa- 
bash,  and  hence  he  is  trying  to  get  an  appropriation 
to  improve  the  navigation  of  the  latter,  with  a  view 
to  improve  the  value  of  the  former.' 

"Extract  from  a  letter  of  a  Washington  Corre- 
spondent. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     361 

"  'Senator  Webster  gets  a  fee  of  $5,000  to  aid  in 
passing  a  bill  to  pay  off  French  claims.' 

"From  the  same. 

"  'Governor  Tazewell,  of  Virginia,  pure  and  im- 
maculate as  he  is  considered,  has  received  $50,000 
from  the  United  States  Bank.' 

"From  the  same. 

"  'Representative  A.  S.  Clayton,  who  was  so  violent 
against  the  Bank,  has  received  an  accommodation 
from  that  institution,  and  it  has  glued  his  tongue  to 
the  roof  of  his  mouth.' 

"  'Was  there  ever  such  a  set  of  cut-throats?'  cries 
one.  'What  a  Botany  Bay  set  of  scoundrels!'  says 
another.  'Nothing  better,'  says  a  third,  'could  be 
expected  from  the  descendants  of  convicts.'  'Oh! 
the  impudent  braggarts !' 

"Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  what  is  the  commentary  on 
all  this?  Suppose  Mrs.  Trollope,  or  Basil  Hall, 
or  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar,  or  some  of  that  tribe 
of  lying  journalists  who  are  hired  to  steal  reputa- 
tion just  because  they  have  no  reputation  of  their 
own,  had  gone  home  and  said  these  things  of  an 
American  Congress;  what  do  you  imagine  the  good 
people  of  the  United  States  would  have  thought 
about  it?  Would  it  not  have  produced  a  deep  sen- 
sation throughout  the  whole  land?  Would  not 
every  American  of  high  and  honorable  feelings  have 
considered  himself  grossly  scandalized  in  this  male- 
volent attack  upon  his  country's  character?  Nations 
have  characters  as  well  as  individuals,  and  it  is  the 
sum  of  individual  character  that  forms  a  nation's. 
It  is  utterly  impossible  for  a  community  of  thieves  to 
make  an  honest  nation;  therefore,  every  man's  char- 
acter is  identified  with  the  character  of  his  country. 
When,  sir,  did  any  traveler  ever,  in  the  worst  con- 
dition of  his  bile,  say  such  things  of  us  as  our  com- 
monly called  well-regulated  press?  They  speak  of 
our  manners,  customs  and  intelligence  in  terms  of 
derision,  and  this  excites  our  indignation  in  a  very 


362     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

high  degree ;  but  they  say  but  little  about  our  morals, 
and  nothing  about  our  honesty ;  and  yet,  Mr.  Speak- 
er, our  own  press  would  make  the  world  believe, 
(and  that  very  world,  too,  who  are  looking  upon 
us  with  a  jealous,  not  to  say,  envious  eye,  on  account 
of  our  free  principles,)  that  the  great  fountain-head 
of  our  legislation,  which  forms  the  heart  and  motive 
power  of  these  great  liberal  principles,  is  as  corrupt 
as  the  most  varied  infamy  can  make  it.  Can  any- 
thing more  delight  foreign  nations,  differing  as  they 
do  from  us  in  their  forms  of  government,  and  trem- 
bling under  the  dread  of  the  influence  of  enlightened 
'freedom  upon  their  coercive  institutions,  than  to 
hear  that  we  are  likely  to  sink  under  the  moral  dis- 
temperature  of  our  system?  If  they  believe  our  own 
testimony,  they  have  a  right  to  form  that  conclusion ; 
and,  false  as  we  know  it  to  be,  yet  we  sit  here,  in- 
different as  to  the  consequences  of  such  pestilential 
slander,  tamely  acquiescing  in  every  malicious  calum- 
ny that  emanates  from  the  press,  or  from  correspon- 
dents in  or  out  of  this  House;  and,  what  is  worse, 
powerless  as  we  are  to  suppress  the  mischief,  it  meets 
with  no  condemnation  from  the  people,  whose  own 
country  and  character  are  as  much  affected  by  it  as 
our  own;  it  arouses  no  portion  of  their  sensibility, 
though  it  strikes  the  deadliest  blow  at  the  whole 
moral  frame  of  a  government  that  forms  the  boast 
of  a  periodical  festival  and  the  theme  of  their  per- 
petual admiration." 


CHAPTER   XXV 

RETURNS     TO     THE     BAR ON     THE     CIRCUIT THE 

ALBEMARLE      LAWYERS LETTER     ON     THE      IN- 
FLUENCES OF  SLAVERY. 

With  his  retirement  from  the  activities  of  politics, 
in  which  he  had  been  continuously  engaged  since 
1818,  Gordon  renewed  his  interest  in  his  profession, 
and  in  the  pursuit  of  agriculture,  a  combination  of 
occupations  not  unusual  with  the  Virginia  lawyer  of 
the  period. 

Society  at  its  best  then  dwelt  in  the  country  re- 
gions of  Virginia.  The  cities  and  towns  were  of 
comparatively  small  population,  and  slave  labor 
made  the  land-owner  independent  and  comfortable. 
The  country  lawyer  had  his  office  in  the  yard  attached 
to  his  dwelling-house,  and  here  his  clients  visited  him ; 
or  else  he  met  them,  and  was  retained  in  their  cases 
at  the  county-seat  on  court-day — a  monthly  occasion 
upon  which  the  citizens  gathered  together  to  transact 
their  business  with  each  other,  to  listen  to  political 
speeches,  and  to  look  after  their  various  matters  of 
interest,  and  to  attend  court. 

Thomas  Nelson  Page,  in  his  paper  on  "The  Old 
Virginia  Lawyer,"  read  before  the  Virginia  State 
Bar  Association  in  1891,  has  portrayed  with  vivid 
touch  the  lawyer  of  the  old  school.  "He  was  a 
notable  person,"  says  Page,  "a  character  well  worth 
preserving;  a  constitutional  part  of  our  civilization. 
He  was  the  most  considerable  man  of  the  county. 
The  planter,  the  preacher  and  the  doctor  were  all  men 
of  position  and  consideration,  but  the  old  lawyer  sur- 
passed them  all.  Without  the  wealth  of  the  planter, 
the  authority  of  the  clergyman,  or  the  personal  affec- 
tion, which  was  the  peculiar  possession  of  the  family 
physician,  the  old  lawyer  held  a  position  in  the  county 


364    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

easily  first.  He  was,  indeed,  as  has  been  aptly  said, 
a  planter,  though  he  was  not  that  primarily.  Pri- 
marily he  was  lawyer.  He  managed  his  farm  only 
by  the  way. 

"In  conversation  he  was  brilliant.  The  whole 
field  of  law,  of  literature,  history,  philosophy,  was 
his  domain.  In  all  of  them  he  ranged  at  will,  ex- 
hibiting a  knowledge,  an  intelligence,  a  critical 
faculty,  which  were  astonishing.  Though  he  never 
wrote  a  line,  he  was  a  philosopher,  a  wit,  a  poet. 
His  knowledge  of  human  nature  was  profound.  It 
was  his  chief  study.  He  nearly  always  spoke  of 
men  in  the  aggregate  with  contempt;  of  the  times 
as  'degenerate' ;  yet  in  actual  intercourse  his  conduct 
was  at  variance  with  his  talk;  he  treated  every  one 
with  respect  ....  his  fund  of  anecdote  was  in- 
exhaustible. He  told  stories  which  kept  his  com- 
panions roaring;  he  told  them  with  inimitable  apt- 
ness and  delicious  humor;  among  them  he  was  a  boy, 
jovial,  rollicking;  yet,  let  but  a  fool  approach,  and 
he  was  dignity  itself.  To  young  lawyers  he  was  all 
kindness.  He  treated  them  with  a  courtesy  which 
was  knightly,  with  a  gentleness  and  consideration 
which  were  tenderness.  He  called  them  in  private 
intercourse  by  their  names,  with  that  flattering  famil- 
iarity so  pleasing  to  young  men.  In  public  he  re- 
ferred to  them  as  'the  learned  counsel,'  or  'my  dis- 
tinguished young  brother.'  They  repaid  it  by  wor- 
shipping him." 

The  characterization  is  quite  typical;  and  with 
differentiations  is  applicable  to  Gordon,  as  to  many 
of  his  professional  brethren  of  the  period.  It  may 
be  said  of  him,  however,  that  no  contempt  of  men 
in  the  aggregate  entered  into  his  mental  make-up. 
He  believed  in  the  ultimate  sanity  and  integrity  of 
the  people,  with  a  faith  as  profound  as  ever  imbued 
Mr.  Jefferson  in  the  days  of  his  extremest  democracy. 

"Riding  the  circuit,"  in  the  practice  of  law,  was 
an  incident  of  the  profession  in  those  days  before  the 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     365 

advent  of  the  railroads.  William  Wirt  and  Dabney 
Carr  rode  the  circuit  together,  out  of  Albemarle, 
into  the  "free  State  of  Fluvanna,"  when  they  were 
young  men;  and  prophesied  each  the  future  of  the 
other  as  they  jogged  along  the  red  clay  roads.  Mr. 
William  Green,  the  most  erudite  and  scholarly  law- 
yer of  his  age,  and  a  contemporary  of  Gordon's, 
as  were  Wirt  and  Carr,  on  his  circuit-riding  always 
took  with  him  in  his  saddle-bags  or  his  great-coat 
pocket  a  copy  of  some  classic  Greek  or  Latin  author. 
Though  the  associations,  which  this  vogue  of  travel- 
ing the  circuit  created,  were  frequently,  during  the  re- 
cesses of  the  court,  cemented  by  a  conviviality  that 
was  not  unusual  in  other  contemporaneous  societies, 
yet  the  large  majority  of  the  country  lawyers  of  the 
time  practised  their  profession  with  serious  purpose 
and  noble  achievement,  and  by  no  means  with  the 
dissipation  often  attributed  to  them. 

Gordon,  whose  home  at  Edgeworth  was  conven- 
iently situated  near  the  junction  of  the  three  counties 
of  Albemarle,  Orange,  and  Louisa,  and  within  easy- 
reaching  distance  of  the  county  of  Fluvanna,  was  a 
regular  practitioner  in  the  courts  of  each  of  them. 
Although  in  his  later  years,  from  the  inbred  habit 
that  comes  inevitably  to  most  lawyers  who  continue 
long  in  active  politics,  he  had  ceased  to  be  such  a 
close  and  careful  student  of  text-books  and  of  cases 
as  he  had  been  in  his  earlier  practice;  yet  the  great 
principles,  which  constitute  the  basis  of  the  law,  had 
been  so  deeply  grounded  in  him  in  his  earlier  exper- 
ience that  they  remained  with  him;  while  they  had 
been  continually  revived  and  refreshed  by  his  work 
during  all  his  legislative  career,  through  his  frequent 
association  and  contact  with  law  and  lawyers  in  his 
services  upon  the  Judiciary  committees  of  the  House 
of  Delegates  and  of  the  national  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. 

The  overwhelming  mass  of  decisions  and  of  legal 
essays  and  texts,  which  now  afford  to  the  practitioner 


3 66    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

cases  for  and  against  nearly  every  legal  proposition 
that  may  be  suggested,  and  contribute  to  make  of  the 
highly  successful  lawyer  of  to-day  almost  necessarily 
a  specialist,  on  account  of  the  limit  imposed  on  human 
endurance  by  finite  time,  were  not  essential  to  the 
accomplished  practitioner  of  Gordon's  day.  He  ar- 
gued his  cases  from  fundamental  principles.  Melius 
est  petere  f antes  quam  sectari  rivulos,  was  a  not  in- 
frequent maxim  of  his  able  bar; — and  he  made  but 
sparse  and  limited  citation  of  authority.  His  appeal 
was  to  the  judicial  intelligence  which  applied  sound 
reasons  to  basic  foundations,  and  reached  conclusions 
which  were  as  certain  and  correct  as  any  established 
upon  innumerable  cases  by  unnumbered  judges. 
With  this  method  of  presentation  Gordon  was  strong 
and  persuasive  in  all  the  courts  in  which  he  practised ; 
and  the  records  of  these  courts  attest  the  frequency 
of  his  employment  in  important  litigation,  and  the 
success  with  which  it  was  conducted  by  him.  As  an 
advocate  in  the  trial  of  jury  causes,  he  was  eminently 
distinguished;  and  until,  with  the  approach  of  old 
age,  he  withdrew  from  active  practice,  there  were 
comparatively  few  litigated  common  law  cases  of 
importance,  or  criminal  cases  of  any  magnitude  in  his 
judicial  circuit,  in  which  he  did  not  appear.  That 
he  maintained  himself  among  his  competitors  of  the 
period  is  no  slight  indication  of  his  knowledge,  his 
ability,  and  his  skill;  for  the  bar  of  his  vicinage 
ranked  then,  as  it  ranked  before,  and  has  ranked 
since,  as  among  the  ablest  in  a  State,  where  the  pro- 
fession has,  through  the  history  of  both  Colony  and 
Commonwealth,  attracted  the  pursuit  of  the  acutest 
and  most  highly  trained  intellects. 

At  his  home  bar  in  Albemarle,  and  of  his  own 
generation,  the  roster  of  lawyers  bore  the  names  of 
Philip  Pendleton  Barbour,  Hugh  Nelson,  John  S. 
Barbour,  Valentine  W.  Southall,  Richard  H.  Field, 
Briscoe  G.  Baldwin,  James  Barbour,  William  Cabell 
Rives,  Chapman  Johnson,  Thomas  Walker  Gilmer, 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     367 

and  Nicholas  P.  Trist.  Some  of  these  men  were  resi- 
dents of  other  counties ;  but  they  were  all  active  prac- 
titioners in  the  Albemarle  courts,  and  they  were  all 
highly  distinguished  in  their  profession. 

Of  the  junior  bar  who  practised  in  the  county  were 
Thomas  J.  Michie,  Lucian  Minor,  William  B.  Nap- 
ton,  Egbert  R.  Watson,  Hugh  A.  Garland,  Peachy 
R.  Grattan,  John  W.  Stevenson,  John  B.  Minor, 
Shelton  F.  Leake,  Allen  B.  Magruder,  George  Wythe 
Randolph,  William  J.  Robertson  and  Roger  A.  Pryor. 

The  membership  of  the  Albemarle  bar  from  1809, 
when  Gordon  first  qualified  to  practise  in  the  courts 
of  the  county,  to  1858,  the  year  of  his  death,  consti- 
tutes a  shining  bede-roll  of  illustrious  names  in  the 
story  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia. 

Brief  mention  of  many  of  these  men  has  been  made 
in  preceding  chapters.  Notable  among  them  on  the 
political  arena  of  Gordon's  period  was  Nicholas  P. 
Trist,  who  having  studied  law  under  Mr.  Jefferson, 
was  private  secretary  to  President  Jackson,  and  later 
became  United  States  Consul  at  Havana.  He  was 
Assistant  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  in 
1845;  and  negotiated  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hi- 
dilgo  as  Peace  Commissioner  to  Mexico  in  1848. 

William  Green  of  Culpeper,  Gordon's  junior  by 
some  twenty  years,  was  known  as  the  most  learned 
lawyer  of  his  day,  not  only  in  Virginia  but  in  the 
United  States;  and  the  fame  of  his  erudition  ex- 
tended to  England.  Green  and  Gordon  frequently 
met  each  other  in  the  trial  of  cases.  Mr.  John  Ran- 
dolph Tucker  was  accustomed  to  tell,  with  an  inimi- 
table humor,  a  story  of  the  discussion,  between  these 
two,  of  Shakespeare's  legal  knowledge  as  illustrated 
in  the  character  of  Portia  in  "The  Merchant  of 
Venice."  It  is  here  set  down  as  narrated  by  Mr. 
Tucker  in  an  address  before  the  Bar  Association  of 
the  City  of  Richmond  in  the  eighties : 

"At  the  country  tavern  at  Orange  Court  House," 
said  Mr.  Tucker,  "the  judge  (Field)  and  the  bar 


368     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

assembled  in  the  evening  after  the  labors  of  the  day 
were  over,  and  professional,  public,  historic  and  liter- 
ary matters  were  discussed  with  clever  and  playful 
criticism,  in  which  sharp  blows  were  given  and  re- 
ceived without  temper  or  offence.  Three  lawyers 
were  there  who  took  part  in  the  exercise  of  debate, — 
the  judge  and  the  remainder  of  the  bar  as  auditors, — 
General  Gordon,  William  Green  and  Alexander  R. 
Holladay.  General  Gordon  admired  and  was  better 
read  in  Shakespeare  than  in  the  works  of  my  Lord 
Coke.  On  this  occasion  he  was  dilating  (not  dilut- 
ing, as  a  wag  once  said  of  another  speaker)  on  the 
marvellous  genius  of  the  great  poet.  He  rose  (he 
generally  did  in  conversation,  when  his  talk  became 
something  of  a  speech),  and  held  the  floor  without 
dispute,  and  not  under  the  prior  rule.  He  permitted 
questions  from  the  audience,  which  only  sharpened 
his  wit  and  gave  spirit  to  his  eloquence. 

"Green  and  Gordon  were  great  friends  and  mutual 
admirers.  Each  admired  in  the  other  what  he  did 
not  possess.  Gordon  dreaded  Green's  nice  point  of 
law;  Green  feared  Gordon's  eloquence  before  the 
jury.  Hence  their  tactics,  when  opposed,  were  di- 
verse. Gordon  strove  to  brush  away  Green's  ob- 
structive legal  objections,  while  Green  sturdily  inter- 
posed them.  'For  Heaven's  sake?'  cried  Gordon 
one  day,  'let  us  get  to  the  jury.'  'No,'  said  Green, 
'for  if  we  do,  my  case  is  lost.' 

"On  the  occasion  under  discussion,  Gordon  spoke 
of  the  myriad-minded  Shakespeare,  whose  knowledge 
of  the  human  heart  was  as  if  he  had  made  it;  that 
he  seemed  to  know  all  human  vocations,  as  if  he  were 
a  master-workmen  in  it,  and  that  in  a  word,  nil 
teligit  quod  non  orncwit. 

"At  this  point  Green,  who  was  quietly  walking  up 
and  down  the  room,  listening  with  genuine  interest  to 
the  eulogy  on  Shakespeare,  interposed  with  the  re- 
mark: 

'  'Well,  General,  I  am  not  disposed  to  depreciate 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     369 

your  beautiful  tribute  to  the  immortal  bard;  but  it  is 
due  to  loyalty  to  our  profession  to  affirm  with  confi- 
dence, what  I  am  ready  to  maintain  before  the  court, 
that  whatever  he  knew  of  other  vocations,  he  was  not 
even  a  tyro  in  the  scene  of  jurisprudence.' 

"Gordon  (with  emphatic  contempt)  :  'Well,  I 
suppose  he  could  hardly  compete  with  a  county  court 
lawyer  in  the  trial  of  a  petty  case  before  the  County 
Court  of  Orange.  But  I  challenge  your  proof.' 

"Green:  'In  answer  to  your  challenge,  I  allege  he 
showed  utter  ignorance  of  the  simplest  maxims  of 
law  in  the  decision  of  the  case,  In  re  Shylock.' 

"Gordon:  'Who  the  devil  ever  heard  it  called  In 
re  Shy  lock?' 

"Green:  'I  know  no  other  way  to  cite  it;  but  I 
affirm  the  decision  was  utterly  absurd.' 

"Gordon :  'No  doubt  it  is  unintelligible  to  the  pet- 
tifoggers who  practise  in  the  county  courts.  Do  you 
propose  to  drag  down  the  winged  Pegasus  of  Shake- 
speare's genius,  and  drive  him  to  the  tumbril-cart  of 
your  petty  county  court?' 

"  'Green  (not  offended  at  this  playful  badinage)  : 
'Well,  General,  notwithstanding  your  objurgatory  ex- 
pressions, I  proceed  to  show  that  the  judgment  was 
wrong.'  Green  (now  adopting  the  semi-Socratic 
method,  which  Gordon  did  not  like)  proceeded: 

'You  admit  that  when  A.  grants  anything  to  B. 
the  law  implies  with  it  the  grant  of  all  that  is  neces- 
sary to  the  enjoyment  of  the  thing  granted.  You 
concede  that?' 

"Gordon:  'No,  I'll  be  hanged  if  I  do.  But  for 
the  sake  of  argument,  I  admit  it.' 

"Green:  'Therefore,  when  Antonio  granted  to 
Shylock  a  pound  of  flesh  to  be  taken  from  about  the 
heart,  the  law  implied  that  so  much  blood  was  granted 
with  the  flesh  as  must  be  shed  in  order  to  the  legal 
possession  of  the  pound  of  flesh  granted.  But  Mis- 
tress Justice  Portia  held  that  he  could  not  take  the 
24 


370    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

flesh,  because  blood  would  be  shed  in  doing  so,  which 
blood  was  not  granted: — contrary  to  the  simplest 
maxims  of  the  horn-books  of  the  law.  Hence  I  say, 
Shakespeare  knew  nothing  of  law.' 

"The  General  was  not  prepared  to  meet  this  nice 
objection,  and  emptied  the  vials  of  his  playful  wrath 
upon  his  learned  friend  for  questioning  Mistress  Por- 
tia's judgment. 

"At  this  point  Mr.  Holladay  intervened: 

"  'But,  Mr.  Green,  may  not  the  decision  be  vin- 
dicated on  the  old  case  of  Collins  vs.  Blanton?  This 
was  not  a  case  of  grant.  It  was  an  executory,  not  an 
executed  contract.  A  contract  to  take  flesh  and  blood 
from  the  heart  of  a  man  involved  his  life;  it  was  a 
contract  against  law  and  for  crime.  It  was  void,  and 
could  not  be  enforced.' 

"Gordon  (exultant)  :  'Now,  Mr.  Critic,  what 
have  you  to  say  to  that?' 

"Green  (with  all  the  gravity  of  a  barrister  in  the 
appellate  court)  :  'The  point  made  by  Mr.  Holladay 
is  very  ingenious.  I  will  look  to  see  if  the  authorities 
sustain  it.  But,  General,  if  well  taken,  it  leaves  my 
contention  untouched;  for  as  Mistress  Justice  Portia 
based  her  decision  on  the  ground  I  objected  to,  and 
did  not  assign  as  a  reason  for  it  that  offered  by  Alex- 
ander Holladay,  I  insist  that  Shakespeare  may  have 
decided  rightly,  but  for  a  wrong  reason,  and  there- 
fore, was  no  lawyer.' 

"The  discussion  closed  with  merry  laughter,  and 
the  parties  retired  to  bed,  with  mutual  feelings  of 
admiration  and  affection."* 

Amid  the  quiet  of  his  professional  pursuits  and  of 
the  duties  incident  to  his  life  as  a  planter,  Gordon 
continued  to  maintain  an  abiding  interest  in  the  great 
national  political  drama  which  was  so  rapidly  and 
inevitably  approaching  its  conclusion.  One  of  his 

*This  story  is  narrated  in  a  Biography  of  William  Green,  in 
"Great  American  Lawyers,"  Vol.  5,  published  by  The  John  C. 
Winston  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1907-1909. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     371 

sons,  a  young  man  of  twenty-six,  had  taken  up  his 
residence  in  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  was  the  editor 
of  a  daily  newspaper  then  published  in  that  town,  the 
Alexandria  Standard.  To  him  Gordon  wrote  in 
September,  1854,  as  follows: 

"Your  mother  and  myself  take  great  interest  in 
your  paper.  It  is  always  the  first  read,  and  she 
files  away  every  one  of  them.  Your  disquisitions  on 
slavery  are  well  written,  and  afford  just  views  of  the 
institution.  But  in  discussing  it,  do  not  give  offence 
to  the  non-slaveholding  States,  as  you  lash  the  fac- 
tions that  disgrace  them.  In  the  dearth  of  political 
matter  the  subject  is  well  chosen;  and  its  discussion, 
in  a  proper  tone  and  temper,  may  do  much  good  by 
sustaining  the  rights  of  the  South,  and  enlightening 
the  ignorance  and  prejudices  of  the  non-slaveholding 
States.  Indeed  it  is  a  subject  that  may  well  employ 
the  thoughts  of  the  profoundest  statesmen  as  an 
interesting  constitution  of  civilized  society  new  to  the 
history  of  the  world.  If  I  mistake  not,  it  is  the  first 
instance  in  history  of  the  existence  of  African  slavery 
under  republican  institutions,  of  which  we  have  an 
experience.  Since  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  during  our  whole  colonial  history,  we  have  also  a 
contrasted  experience  of  nearly  an  equal  number  of 
slaveholding  and  non-slaveholding  States,  under  the 
same  general  government,  and  similar  State  govern- 
ments, of  the  white  race,  or  the  homo  Europaeus 
sapiens.  I  see  you  have  glanced  at  the  side  of  the 
picture  which  has  never  been  thoroughly  examined — 
the  influence  of  the  institution  on  the  moral  and  social 
character  of  the  white  race.  It  is  a  spacious  and  un- 
trodden field,  the  correct  delineation  of  which  might 
well  employ  the  highest  intellects  of  the  wise  and  ex- 
perienced. I  am  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  no 
period  of  human  history  affords  more  or  higher  ex- 
amples of  virtuous  and  truly  great  men  than  that  of 
the  slave-holding  States  from  our  Revolution  to  the 
present  time — from  Washington  to  Calhoun.  What 


372     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

other  region  can  boast  of  such  men  as  Henry  and 
Mason, — as  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe, — as  Jack- 
son, and  Clay  and  Randolph, — with  the  host  of 
men  of  the  present  day,  whose  reputation  time  is  to 
finish  and  consecrate  ?  Where  can  be  found  wiser  and 
braver  men,  or  purer  and  more  virtuous  women ;  and 
if  we  mount  from  individual  character  to  that  of  com- 
munities, where  can  be  found  an  act  among  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  world,  ancient  or  modern,  to  compare 
with  the  munificent  bestowal  of  our  Northwestern 
empire  to  the  Confederate  States,  for  the  purpose  of 
general  liberty?  Hold  up  to  the  abolitionists  of  Old 
England  and  New  England  the  statue  of  Washing- 
ton, and  the  deed  of  cession  ornamented  with  the 
portrait  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  our  Virginia  Han- 
nibal; and  bid  them  be  silent!" 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

LETTERS  TO  HIS  WIFE — ANECDOTES — DEATH 

Gordon's  personal  characteristics  of  domesticity 
and  of  strong  family  affection  are  indicated  in  the  let- 
ters written  to  his  wife  during  his  public  career.  It 
was  always  a  struggle  with  him  to  forego  the  kindlier 
life  of  his  plantation,  and  the  pleasure  of  his  family 
associations,  for  the  frequent  absences  which  his  poli- 
tical duties  necessitated.  There  was  no  lack  of  sin- 
cerity in  his  statement  to  Mrs.  Gordon,  in  May, 
1834,  in  one  of  his  letters,  when  he  learned  of  the 
political  opposition  which  was  manifesting  itself  at 
home,  that  he  should  be  satisfied  to  retire  from  office. 

"In  regard  to  the  movement  in  my  district,"  he 
wrote,  "I  am  very  indifferent  personally.  Whenever 
the  people  think  I  have  abandoned  their  interests,  or 
that  they  can  be  more  ably  represented,  I  am  willing 
to  retire.  I  have  asked  nothing  for  myself.  I  have 
no  aspirations  beyond  the  wishes  of  my  constituents. 
Yet  there  are  tides  in  the  affairs  of  men,  and  per- 
haps the  flood  of  mine  has  passed.  If  so,  I  shall 
glide  down  the  ebb-tide  into  the  haven  of  domestic 
peace,  where  the  best  of  wives  and  dearest  of  off- 
spring have  been  too  long  neglected." 

In  February,  1830,  soon  after  his  arrival  in  Wash- 
ington to  enter  upon  his  duties  as  a  representative,  he 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon : 

"I  think  I  must  make  some  arrangement  to  bring 
you  to  Washington,  or  that  I  shall  not  remain  a 
member  of  Congress  long. 

"I  saw  Mrs.  Randolph  and  two  of  her  daughters 
some  evenings  ago  at  Mr.  VanBuren's.  I  have  sent 
your  father  a  parcel  of  wheat  from  Malaga,  procured 
by  one  of  our  consuls.  It  is  highly  spoken  of,  but  I 
apprehend  it  will  not  do  to  seed  it  until  the  fail. 


374    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

"I  have  made  an  interesting  acquaintance  with  a 
lady  from  Baltimore,  who  lives  with  Colonel  Bar- 
hour's  mess,  and  is  one  of  the  family  of  General  Sam 
Smith.  She  is  the  counterpart  of  cousin  Betsey 
Michie,  but  somewhat  older.  She  is  a  very  literary 
lady  both  in  prose  and  poetry;  and  having  been  here 
each  session  of  Congress  for  more  than  twenty  years, 
is  acquainted  with  all  the  great  men  and  events  that 
have  characterized  the  age.  She  is  very  frank  in  her 
manners  and  conversation,  and  attracts  general  cour- 
tesy from  her  extensive  acquirements  and  accurate 
observation.  Colonel  Barbour  and  Mrs.  Barbour 
tell  me  that  she  is  pleased  with  me;  and  I,  on  my 
part,  think  her  one  of  the  best  informed  ladies  I  have 
seen. 

"But,  after  all,  nothing  affords  me  any  real  con- 
solation for  separation  from  you  and  my  dear  chil- 
dren; and  I  can  say  very  candidly  to  you  that,  after 
having  seen  many  scenes,  and  mingled  in  circles  cal- 
culated to  gratify  my  curiosity,  I  have  met  with  no 
lady  equal  to  you,  and  nothing  that  can  ever  compare 
with  home  happiness  for  a  moment." 

While  always  deeply  absorbed  in  his  legislative 
duties,  or  in  the  politics  incident  to  them,  in  his  let- 
ters to  his  wife,  he  did  not  forget  to  tell  her  of  her 
friends  whom  he  met,  or  to  relate  to  her  such  hap- 
penings as  he  thought  might  interest  her.  Again  in 
February,  1 830,  he  wrote : 

"I  visited  Mrs.  Randolph  a  few  days  after  I  wrote 
you  last.  She  and  her  family  are  well.  She  seems 
to  be  comfortably  fixed,  and  the  establishment  showed 
much  of  taste  in  all  that  I  observed.  She  seems  a 
little  pensive,  and  says  that  she  feels  some  of  the  pains 
of  an  exile." 

In  April  of  the  same  year  he  wrote : 

"I,  like  you,  am  welcoming  the  flight  of  time.     I 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     375 

would  give  him  double  wings,  for  a  while,  if  the 
transformation  were  in  my  power.  I  am  glad  to  hear 
that  Hannah  has  also  determined  to  take  lessons  in 
French.  The  diversity  of  character  between  her  and 
Maria,  I  hope,  will  be  a  source  of  mutual  improve- 
ment and  excellence  in  both.  I  am  very  sure  they 
will  be  more  accomplished  in  their  domestic  education 
than  in  any  other  way.  The  frippery  of  fashion,  and 
the  little  polish  that  much  company  can  give  will  soon 
enough  be  acquired  by  them. 

"I  do  not  expect  to  sec  a  very  fine  garden  on  my 
return;  but  I  am  impatient  to  go  back  to  the  bosom 
of  my  family  and  of  nature.  I  am  tired  of  men  and 
politics  for  a  season. 

"I  have  got  Byron's  'Life,'  by  Moore.  It  is  an 
amusing  book,  but  is  licentious  and  wicked  in  many 
passages. 

"Mrs.  Coolidge  is  in  Washington.  I  have  not  yet 
seen  her,  but  visited  Mrs.  Randolph  on  Sunday  last." 

On  the  3d  of  May,  1830,  he  said  in  a  letter  to  his 
wife: 

"I  went  on  the  ist  of  May  to  an  exhibition,  which 
they  have  here  annually,  of  an  assemblage  of  little 
girls  and  boys,  the  girls  decorated  with  flowers  of 
every  description,  and  one  of  them  crowned  as  Queen 
of  May.  I  dare  say,  there  were  hundreds  of  them, 
and  a  more  interesting  sight  I  have  not  seen.  Some 
of  the  little  things  seemed  quite  conscious  of  the  at- 
tention they  attracted." 

Once  more  the  note  of  a  longing  for  green  fields, 
and  his  own  household  gods,  appears  in  his  letter  of 
May  loth,  1830: 

"I  hope  before  George  and  Charles  are  old  enough 
to  learn  their  books,  that  I  may  be  a  domestic  man 
and  can  aid  you  in  their  instruction.  I  much  fear  now 


376    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

that  we  shall  not  rise  until  the  24th — perhaps  not 
then;  but  I  thank  God  we  cannot  be  kept  much 
longer.  I  never  was  so  restless  and  anxious  to  get 
home.  The  fine  weather,  and  everything  out  of 
doors,  is  so  contrasted  with  the  confinement  and 
wrangling  within,  that  I  am  tired  almost  past  endur- 
ance." 

In  the  December  following  he  was  again  in  Wash- 
ington; and  on  the  2Oth  wrote  to  Mrs.  Gordon: 

"I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  you  and  the  children 
are  well.  This  constitutes  my  first  happiness.  Mr. 
Patton  has  just  returned  from  Fredericksburg  with 
Mrs.  Patton  and  Miss  Lightfoct.  I  wrote  you  that  I 
was  at  Mrs.  Peyton's,  but  did  not  tell  you  of  the  mess. 
We  have  Mr.  Tazewell,  Mr.  White,  Senator  from 
Tennessee,  the  Senator  from  North  Carolina,  Mr. 
Ellis  from  Mississippi,  and  many  others — all  Jackson 
men.  The  house  is  as  genteelly  kept  as  any  in  the 
city. 

"I  am  pleased  to  hear  my  wheat  will  be  at  length 
delivered.  My  health  is  very  good.  I  had  hoped  to 
see  you  at  Christmas,  but  the  roads  are  next  to  im- 
passable, and  the  mail  is  carried  on  horseback  or  in 
carts.  I  received  my  trunk  all  safe. 

"I  have  had  a  present  of  some  Turkish  tobacco 
seed,  with  some  muskmelon  seed  from  the  same  coun- 
try. The  tobacco  is  said  to  be  the  best  for  smoking. 
[  enclose  it  to  you,  and  wish  it  divided  with  your 
father,  Captain  Lindsay,  Lewis  Walker  and  Dr. 
Page,  you  retaining  a  small  quantity  for  an  experi- 
ment at  home. 

"I  also  enclose  you  two  alphabets  on  horn  for 
George  and  Charles.  I  am  impatient  that  the  time 
should  arrive  when  I  shall  meet  you  all  again.  I  hope 
James  will  persevere  in  his  mathematics.  It  is  a 
science  so  intellectual  and  conducive  to  correct  think- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     377 

ing  in  all  other  acquisitions,  that  I  am  particularly 
anxious  he  should  be  proficient  in  it." 

Again  in  January : 

"I  accidentally  found  yesterday,  in  a  shop  where 
I  went  to  buy  tobacco,  some  small,  pretty  hoes,  about 
the  size  of  your  hand.  I  bought  two  for  George  and 
Charles  to  work  their  garden  with.  They  are  too 
heavy  to  frank;  so  I  must  keep  them  till  I  see  you." 
And  again  in  February:  "I  wish  to  thank  you  for 
your  last  letter  and  to  congratulate  you  on  the  near 
approach  of  the  4th  of  March,  when  I  can  leave  this 
place.  I  fear  the  continued  bad  weather  will  make 
the  roads  so  heavy  that  no  other  mode  of  traveling 
except  on  horseback  will  be  practicable." 

The  following  is  a  letter  written  from  Washington 
in  January,  1833,  to  one  of  his  sons,  then  a  lad  at 
home: 

"My  dear  Son:  I  received  your  letter  with  much 
pleasure,  and  am  gratified  with  the  account  you  give 
me  of  the  affairs  on  the  plantation.  Such  information 
I  prize  very  much,  because  no  one  else  gives  me  those 
details  about  the  horses,  stock,  and  work  done  on  the 
place  but  yourself.  Continue  to  write  to  me  of  what- 
ever strikes  your  own  mind  as  of  interest  on  the  farm. 
How  does  the  filly  that  Mr.  Baughn  was  breaking 
turnout?  Will  she  make  a  good  riding  mare  ?  The 
weather  is  now  very  cold,  and  I  fear  the  lambs  will 
suffer,  as  their  dams  can  get  very  little  food  in  the 
fields.  Write  me  how  much  ploughing  has  been  done, 
and  how  the  wheat  looks. 

"Whilst  I  encourage  you  to  take  an  interest  in 
these  matters  of  business,  you  must  not  neglect  the 
improvement  of  your  mind.  I  hope  you  will  en- 
deavor to  improve  yourself  very  much  this  year,  and 
be  a  credit  to  yourself  and  to  your  brother  as  your 


378     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

instructor.  Tell  William  I  received  his  letter,  and 
will  write  to  him  and  Maria  in  a  few  days.  Give  my 
love  to  all  the  family,  and  my  respects  to  all  my 
friends. 

"Your  affectionate  Father." 

His  personal  interest  in  his  family,  no  less  than 
the  good  humor  of  his  women-kind  in  submitting  to 
have  their  headgear  selected  by  a  mere  man,  is  evi- 
denced in  the  following  letter,  written  in  May,  1834: 

"I  send  by  the  stage,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Daniel 
Slaughter,  a  bandbox  containing  three  bonnets  for 
the  girls,  and  yourself,  and  some  articles  which  I  pur- 
chased at  an  Orphans'  Fair.  I  have  great  satisfaction 
in  hearing  of  the  good  health  of  the  family,  but  am 
distressed  that  you  continue  weak.  We  had  a  fine 
rain  here  last  night.  I  hope  it  has  extended  to  you. 
I  can  give  you  no  idea  when  the  session  will  close. 
I  never  was  so  anxious  to  see  you  all. 

"We  are  dragging  on  here  in  a  confused  and  inde- 
cisive manner.  Our  session  is  renewed  to-day,  and 
our  hall  decorated  with  matting  instead  of  carpeting. 

"Mr.  Stevenson  is  at  length  nominated  as  Minis- 
ter to  England.  What  his  fate  will  be  in  the  Senate 
I  can't  tell." 

A  letter  from  Mrs.  Gordon  to  her  husband  in 
Washington  in  December,  1834,  gives  an  idea  of  the 
life  at  Edgeworth,  and  in  the  neighborhood,  at  that 
time.  She  wrote : 

"I  have  not  waited  on  Mrs.  A.  Rives,  but  not  from 
any  party  feeling.  Dining  party  after  dining  party 
has  filled  up  the  time  since  you  left  us.  I  have  only 
joined  them  on  one  occasion,  and  the  constant  succes- 
sion of  visits  the  girls  have  had  has  left  me  very 
solitary.  Churchill  manifests  great  pleasure  at  see- 
ing the  young  ladies,  fixes  himself  in  the  room  with 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     379 

them,  and  never  appears  to  think  of  any  other  amuse- 
ment as  long  as  he  can  attract  their  notice.  We  ex- 
pected ten  or  a  dozen  merry  girls  to  supper  night 
before  last.  A  fine  fire  was  made  in  your  little  read- 
ing room,  and  the  sofa  fixed  as  it  was  when  you  were 
at  home.  Churchill  followed  me  into  the  room,  and 
asked  me  if  it  did  not  look  like  Papa  and  Miss  Mary 
and  Miss  Sarah  ought  to  be  sitting  there.  The  girls 
came,  and  I  never  saw  a  happier  party  than  they 
seemed  to  be  without  even  a  single  beau  to  admire 
them. 

"Yesterday  morning  they  insisted  I  must  go  with 
them  to  Springfield,  where  they  were  all  to  dine. 
They  brought  me  home  in  the  evening;  and  all  the 
party  went  on  to  Mrs.  Page's.  To-day  they  dine  with 
Mrs.  Frank  Nelson  at  Belvoir,  and  on  Monday  they 
are  going  to  Cousin  James  Lindsay's  again.  Mr. 
Rives  gave  them  a  dinner  last  Thursday." 

One  of  his  letters  to  Mrs.  Gordon  indicates  that 
in  spite  of  slaves  and  slavery  "the  servant-question" 
was  a  burning  one  even  then  in  Virginia.  "I  have 
seen  Mrs.  Coolidge,"  he  wrote,  "and  she  requests  to 
be  particularly  mentioned  to  you  and  all  her  friends 
in  our  neighborhood.  I  got  leave  of  her  to  tell  you 
that  you  had  no  idea  of  the  trouble  servants  can  give 
a  mistress,  unless  you  had  some  experience  in  Boston, 
and  that  all  which  Virginia  mistresses  suffer  in  that 
way  is  moderation  compared  with  the  insolence  and 
worthlessness  of  their  menials. 

"She  is  in  good  health,  and  is  a  fine-looking  lady. 
Mrs.  Randolph  directs  me  always  to  send  her  regards 
to  you  and  all. 

"Colonel  P.  P.  Barbour  has  been  ill,  but  is  much 
better  and  is  out  of  danger.  I  am  pleased  to  hear 
that  you  have  been  visited  by  Governor  Barbour  and 
Mrs.  Barbour.  I  shall  enjoy  their  society  when  I 
return  to  Albemarle.  I  am  very  weary  of  Wash- 
ington." 


38o    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Himself  an  orator  of  moving  power,  oratory 
charmed  him,  as  music  charms  the  musician.  Web- 
ster's style  never  seemed  to  appeal  to  him.  Perhaps 
this  was  partly  because  he  did  not  admire  the  man. 
But  in  Clay's  persuasive  eloquence,  and  especially  in 
the  attraction  of  his  voice,  which  he  was  accustomed 
to  say  was  compelling,  he  took  the  greatest  delight. 
He  instanced  its  influence  upon  himself  when,  having 
visited  the  Senate  Chamber,  he  was  on  the  point  of 
departing,  and  was  spell-bound  by  the  marvelous 
sweetness  and  sonorousness  of  the  Kentuckian's  "Mr. 
President,"  as  he  arose  to  address  the  Senate.  Its 
carrying  power  seemed  to  him  as  wonderful  as  its 
melody;  and  it  might  well  be  described,  as  Bulwer 
described  that  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  when  he  ad- 
dressed the  immense  concourse,  "walled  by  wide  air 
and  roofed  by  boundless  heaven,"  on  August  15, 
1843,  on  tne  Hill  of  Tara.  Some  historians, 
informed  by  eye-witnesses,  put  the  number  of  that 
great  audience  as  high  as  five  hundred  thousand;  and 
careful  and  unsympathetic  witnesses,  writes  Justin 
McCarthy,  in  his  "History  of  Our  Own  Times," 
say  that  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  must  have  been 
present.  Bulwer,  himself  an  auditor  of  O'Connell's 
speech,  describes  in  his  poem,  "St.  Stephen's,"  the 
effect  of  O'Connell's  voice : 

"And  as  I  thought,  rose  the  sonorous  swell 
As  from  some  church  tower  swings  the  silvery  bell; 
Aloft  and  clear  from  airy  tide  to  tide 
It  glided  easy  as  a  bird  may  glide. 
To  the  last  verge  of  that  vast  audience  sent, 
It  played  with  each  wild  passion  as  it  went; 
Now  stirred  the  uproar, — now  the  murmur  stilled, 
And  sobs  or  laughter  answered  as  it  willed. 
Then  did  I  know  what  spells  of  infinite  choice 
To  rouse  or  lull  has  the  sweet  human  voice. 
Then  did  I  learn  to  seize  the  sudden  clue 
To  the  grand  troublous  life  antique, — to  view, 
Under  the  rock-stand  of  Demosthenes, 
Unstable  Athens  heave  her  noisy  seas." 

It  was  this  peculiar  quality  of  charm  in  the  voice 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     381 

of  Henry  Clay  that  lured  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  ap- 
proaching his  mortal  end,  and  in  the  last  stage  of 
consumption,  to  stop  in  Washington,  on  his  way  to 
Philadelphia,  in  search  of  medical  aid,  and  to  cause 
himself  to  be  carried  to  the  Senate  Chamber.  At 
the  moment  of  his  arrival,  Clay  took  the  floor  to  ad- 
dress the  Senate.  Randolph,  too  weak  to  stand,  and 
gazing  towards  his  old  enemy,  with  whom  he  had 
fought  the  duel  over  "Blifil  and  Black  George,"  said: 
"I  came  here  to  hear  that  voice  once  more." 

As  is  frequently  the  case  with  men  of  imagination, 
Gordon  possessed  a  sense  of  humor,  which  often 
manifested  itself  in  his  association  with  those  about 
him.  His  devotion  to  his  wife  did  not  prevent  his 
sometimes  greatly  enjoying  a  joke  at  her  expense; 
and  one  which  highly  delighted  him  was  a  remark 
made  to  her  at  her  table  by  a  visitor  to  whom  she 
was  apologizing,  as  she  occasionally  did,  that  the 
meal  was  not  such  a  one  as  she  might  have  wished  to 
serve  her  guest.  Gordon's  idea  of  hospitality  was  to 
give  the  guest  what  was  given  to  the  family,  and  that 
what  was  good  enough  for  the  family  was  good 
enough  for  the  casual  visitor.  On  this  occasion  the 
visitor  was  Mr.  King,  who  had  married  one  of  his 
cousins,  and  resided  in  the  neighborhood.  The  but- 
ter on  the  table  happened  to  be  somewhat  reduced  by 
the  earlier  onslaughts  of  the  numerous  children  of 
the  household;  and  Mrs.  Gordon  apologized  to  Mr. 
King  for  the  small  size  of  the  "pat"  on  the  plate,  in- 
sisting that  he  should  take  some,  and  that  he  should 
not  "be  afraid  of  it" 

"Thank  you,  madam,"  replied  King,  with  a  grim 
smile  which  delighted  his  host,  and  tended  to  the  dis- 
comfiture of  his  hostess,  as  he  helped  himself  to  half 
the  contents  of  the  dish.  "It  isn't  big  enough  to  scare 
anybody!" 

His  last  local  public  appearance  was  in  a  campaign 
in  Albemarle  in  1849.  A  State  law  had  been  enacted 
in  1818  which  provided  that  commissioners  should 


382    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

be  appointed  in  every  county  to  provide  at  the  public 
expense  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  families 
who  were  otherwise  unable  to  educate  them.  The 
system  worked  well  in  Albemarle,  as  elsewhere  in  the 
State,  for  many  years.  Under  it  the  private  schools 
and  classical  academies  flourished;  and  Gordon 
was  accustomed  to  emphasize  the  success  of  the 
existing  educational  scheme  by  saying  that  he  had 
never  known  of  a  child  who  desired,  or  whose  parents 
desired  an  education  for  it,  who  had  failed  to  find 
the  opportunity  in  Virginia  of  obtaining  it.  About 
1845,  however,  the  General  Assembly  provided  for 
the  introduction  of  a  free-school  system,  under  a 
local-option  statute.  An  election  was  called  in  Albe- 
marle to  determine  the  question  of  the  adoption  of  a 
general  public  free-school  system  in  the  county;  and 
what  the  local  historian  calls  "a  memorable  debate" 
took  place  over  it.  "Dr.  Wm.  H.  McGuffey,  of  the 
University,"  writes  Woods,  in  his  "History  of  Albe- 
marle County,"  "took  the  stump  in  behalf  of  free 
schools,  and  General  William  F.  Gordon  and  Colonel 
T.  J.  Randolph  against  them.  By  the  popular  vote  it 
was  decided  that  the  time  for  public  schools  had  not 
yet  come." 

Gordon  antagonized  the  proposition  to  establish  in 
the  county  a  free-school  system,  under  this  local- 
option  statute,  because  he  thought  it  included  features 
that  were  not  calculated  to  advance  education,  or  to 
be  of  public  benefit,  and  because  the  existing  law  had 
proven  sufficient.  Among  those  who  espoused  the 
other  side,  as  stated,  was  Dr.  McGuffey,  the  famous 
author  of  McGuffey's  "Eclectic"  readers  and  spellers, 
which  were  once  very  familiar  to  the  youth  of  the 
country.  Dr.  McGuffey  was  at  that  time  professor 
of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Virginia. 
In  a  discussion  of  the  question,  in  a  public  debate  be- 
tween the  two,  Gordon  suggested  that  the  people  of 
Albemarle  County  should  not  take  their  views  of 
primary  education  from  "an  Ohio  Yankee,"  alluding 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    383 

humorously  to  the  Professor's  place  of  residence  at 
the  time  of  his  election  to  the  chair  which  he  then 
held  in  the  University.  McGuffey  interrupted,  pro- 
testing that  he  was  not  "a  Yankee,"  but  that  his 
father  was  a  Scotchman;  adding  in  his  embarrass- 
ment that  his  "mother  was  an  Irishman."  This 
Hibernicism  was  greeted  with  shouts  of  laughter 
from  the  audience,  which  increased  when  Gordon 
commented,  with  mischievous  humor,  but  with  a  very 
serious  face,  that  he  did  not  know  what  to  think  of  a 
man  of  Dr.  McGuffey's  reputation  venturing  to  speak 
so  disrespectfully  of  his  mother. 

The  Doctor's  speech  was  spoiled  and  he  did  not 
continue  long  in  the  contest,  which  was  decided  by 
the  voters  in  favor  of  the  proposition  assumed  by 
Gordon  and  Jefferson's  grandson,  Colonel  Randolph. 

In  his  own  home,  and  by  his  fireside,  Gordon's 
qualities  of  an  affectionate  husband  and  father,  and 
of  a  hospitable  and  entertaining  host,  shone  with  a 
benignant  light;  and  for  the  members  of  his  house- 
hold, no  less  than  for  the  guests  who  thronged 
his  home,  his  conversational  powers,  and  his  varied 
experiences  of  men  and  events  proved  of  constant 
and  unfailing  charm.  His  sons  and  daughters  alike, 
under  the  inspiration  of  his  teachings,  acquired  no 
inconsiderable  knowledge  of  the  political  history  of 
the  country,  and  of  the  principles  of  its  political 
parties. 

To  one  of  these  sons,  who  did  not  always  agree 
with  him  upon  public  issues,  and  not  infrequently 
gave  his  disagreement  practical  effect  by  his  vote, 
Gordon  once  said : 

"Why  is  it  that  you  so  frequently  oppose  me  and 
your  brothers  in  your  political  action  ?" 

"Because,  sir,"  was  the  answer,  "you  have  always 
taught  us  to  think  for  ourselves,  and  I  have  done  so." 

"I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  you,  my  son,"  his 
father  said.  "You  have  done  right." 

His  love  of  nature  and  of  a  country  life,  exhibited 


3 84    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

in  the  letters  that  are  quoted  in  this  chapter,  seemed 
to  increase  and  expand  as  he  grew  older.  He  had 
come  of  a  race  of  men,  none  of  whom  in  the  genera- 
tions through  which  they  have  been  traced,  had  ever 
lived  in  a  town  or  a  city.  The  agricultural  existence 
appealed  to  him,  as  it  did  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  more 
conducive  than  any  other,  not  only  to  the  purity  and 
integrity  of  society,  but  to  the  preservation  of  institu- 
tional liberty.  He  anticipated  the  development  and 
growth  of  cities  in  America  as  dangerous  to  republi- 
can government,  and  never  hesitated  to  express  his 
dislike  to  aggregations  of  "bricks  and  mortar." 

He  continued  throughout  his  life  a  student  of  let- 
ters, and  of  political  philosophy  and  history;  and 
derived  therefrom  that  solace  and  comforting  com- 
panionship that  those  know  who  enjoy  the  friendship 
of  books.  As  Shakespeare  appealed  to  his  literary 
sense  beyond  all  other  English  authors,  so  he  found 
in  the  writings  of  Burke,  as  did  Randolph  of 
Roanoke,  a  philosophy  of  political  government  which 
touched  more  nearly  and  subtly  than  any  other  his 
innate  sense  of  liberty.  Among  the  books  in  his 
library  which  he  especially  prized  for  its  associations, 
and  profitably  studied  for  its  wisdom  and  worth,  was 
a  work  in  three  volumes,  entitled  "Political  Disquisi- 
tions, or  an  Enquiry  Into  Public  Errors,  Defects  and 
Abuses,  by  J.  Burgh,  Gentleman."  "An  American 
edition  of  Burgh,"  says  Mr.  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby,  in 
his  "Virginia  Convention  of  1776,"  "had  appeared 
the  year  before,  and  it  was  a  favorite  book  with  all 
our  early  statesmen.  Mr.  Jefferson  delighted  to 
praise  it."  Gordon's  copy  was  of  this  edition  of 
1775,  and  had  belonged  to  Mann  Page,  whose  auto- 
graph it  bore.  Page  had  given  it  to  Mr.  Jefferson, 
who  in  turn  presented  it  to  his  younger  friend  and 
follower. 

With  the  religious  inclination  of  most  contempla- 
tive and  thoughtful  minds,  and  with  a  profound 
recognition  of  the  value  of  Christianity  not  only  to 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    385 

the  individual,  but  to  society,  he  yet  never  became  a 
church-member.  When  once  reproached  with  this 
fact,  he  said : 

"I  have  a  brother  who  is  a  Baptist  minister.  My 
two  sisters  are  the  most  pious  Presbyterians  I  have 
ever  known.  My  wife  is  a  devout  Episcopalian.  I 
am  catholic  in  my  views  of  religion,  and  embrace 
them  all." 

The  war-clouds,  whose  lightnings  he  had  long  seen 
flashing  afar,  were  gathering  ominously  to  their  tre- 
mendous storm,  when  he  departed,  in  the  full  and 
happy  possession  of  all  his  faculties,  and  of  all  "that 
which  should  accompany  old  age,  as  honor,  love, 
obedience,  troops  of  friends." 

He  died  suddenly  of  an  affection  of  the  heart,  on 
the  28th  day  of  August,  1858,  at  his  home  at  Edge- 
worth  ;  and  was  buried  in  the  family  burying-ground 
of  the  Lindsays  and  Gordons  at  Springfield. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

CONCLUSION 

Gordon's  name,  like  that  of  many  of  his  prominent 
contemporaries,  does  not  appear  in  the  biographical 
dictionaries;  and  even  so  soon  after  the  period  of  his 
public  achievements  as  the  year  in  which  he  died— 
thus  quickly  do  the  events  of  unrecorded  history  fade 
away  and  are  gone — those  who  knew  him  as  having 
had  a  career  of  distinctive  civic  performance  above 
the  mass  of  his  fellowmen,  had  forgotten  the  details 
of  his  work. 

The  Richmond  Enquirer  said  of  him,  after  he 
died: 

"In  the  death  of  this  gentleman  Virginia  has  lost 
another  of  that  noble  list  of  sons  for  which  she  was 
distinguished  in  the  early  days  of  her  renown. 

"He  died  very  suddenly  on  the  morning  of  the 
28th  instant,  in  the  seventy-second  year  of  his  age. 

"It  was  the  fortune  of  General  Gordon  to  be 
prominently  connected  with  many  interesting  events 
during  his  life,  and  his  memory  will  be  united  with 
the  history  of  this  Commonwealth  in  much  that  re- 
lates to  her  future  glory. 

"The  establishment  of  the  University  of  Virginia 
on  a  permanent  basis  was  an  object  which  engaged 
much  of  the  attention  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  the  latter 
part  of  his  life.  General  Gordon  was  his  personal 
and  political  friend,  and  being  one  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  county  of  Albemarle  in  the  House  of 
Delegates  of  Virginia,  was  chosen  by  Mr.  Jefferson 
as  a  leading  patron  of  the  bill  before  the  House. 

"He  contributed  as  much,  if  not  more,  than  any 
other  man  to  the  success  of  all  the  measures  resulting 
in  the  establishment  of  that  institution,  which  is  now 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     387 

not  only  the  pride  of  Virginia,  but  the  most  popular 
literary  institution  in  all  the  Southern  States. 

"He  represented  his  county  many  years;  and  when 
a  revisal  of  the  constitution  of  the  State  was  deter- 
mined on,  he  was  elected  to  the  Convention  of  1830, 
acknowledged  to  be  the  ablest  body  of  men  which 
ever  assembled  in  this  country,  or  perhaps  any  other; 
containing  as  it  did  Madison,  Monroe,  Marshall, 
Randolph,  Tazewell,  Leigh,  Johnson,  Stanard,  and 
a  host  of  others  very  little  inferior  to  them.  The 
great  question  which  agitated  that  large  mass  of  col- 
lected talent  was  whether  the  future  representation 
of  the  State  should  be  based  on  property,  as  it  was 
originally,  or  on  population.  It  was  a  mighty 
struggle  between  giant  intellects  over  what  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  vital  interests  of  the  Commonwealth ; 
and  was  protracted  to  great  length — the  east  gener- 
ally contending  for  the  continuance  of  the  existing 
basis,  and  the  west  urging  that  numbers  was  the 
proper  one. 

"In  this  state  of  things  General  Gordon  offered  a 
compromise,  commonly  known  as  'the  Mixed  Basis,' 
having  regard  to  population  and  taxation  combined. 
His  proposition  was  adopted,  and  closed  that  exciting 
controversy  which  at  one  time  threatened  to  divide 
the  State. 

"He  was  elected  to  Congress  from  the  Albemarle 
district  during  the  administration  of  General  Jackson, 
and  though  a  warm  political  friend,  he  disregarded 
the  strong  party  feelings  which  in  common  with  many 
of  the  best  men  of  the  day  he  entertained,  and  in  his 
greater  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  South  he  took 
sides  with  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and  without 
reserve  opposed  General  Jackson's  famous  proclama- 
tion and  force-bill. 

"General  Gordon  may  be  considered  the  father  of 
the  great  system  of  gold  and  silver  currency  for  the 
General  Government.  During  his  services  in  Con- 
gress in  the  administration  of  General  Jackson  he  in- 


388     WILLIAiM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

troduced  a  bill  to  have  all  the  revenues  of  the  govern- 
ment collected  in  gold  and  silver.  The  details  of  this 
bill  are  not  recollected ;  but  it  was  the  first  public  sug- 
gestion of  that  remedy  for  the  evils  of  a  redundant 
paper  currency. 

"General  Gordon  was  not  only  distinguished  for 
the  prominent  position  he  held  among  the  leading 
politicians  of  his  day,  but  he  held  high  rank  at  the 
bar.  He  was  a  contemporary  of  Richard  Morris  and 
Philip  P.  Barbour,  and  often  encountered  them. 
Though  not  so  profound  a  lawyer  as  Barbour,  he 
was  greatly  his  superior  as  an  advocate.  His  ready 
eloquence,  combined  with  his  chivalrous  character  and 
generous  feelings,  made  him  a  most  formidable  com- 
petitor before  the  jury  to  any  lawyer.  Being  a  man 
of  ardent  and  sensitive  feelings,  he  knew  how  to  enlist 
the  feelings  of  those  he  addressed. 

"High  as  General  Gordon  stood  as  a  public  man,  he 
was  the  more  elevated  as  a  private  man  above  the 
mass  of  his  followers.  To  say  that  he  was  a  Virginia 
gentleman  of  the  old  school  is  not  enough.  No  man 
who  ever  lived  had  a  nicer  sense  of  personal  honor 
and  integrity;  nor  did  any  practice  them  with 
stricter  fidelity.  He  could  not  be  surprised  or 
tempted  into  the  commission  of  the  slightest  act  un- 
worthy of  a  man  of  refined  honor  and  purity.  He 
was  generous  and  liberal  almost  to  a  fault.  Indeed 
few  men  possessed  qualities  of  head  and  heart  com- 
bined, better  calculated  to  command  respect  and  af- 
fection than  General  Wililam  F.  Gordon  from  all 
who  knew  him." 

The  following  article  was  published  about  the 
same  time  in  The  South,  a  Virginia  newspaper  then 
edited  by  the  Hon.  Roger  A.  Pryor,  who  after  the 
War  between  the  States  achieved  eminence  as  a  law- 
yer and  jurist  of  New  York  City : 

"We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  this  distin- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON     389 

guished  citizen.  He  expired  on  the  2 8th  instant  at  his 
residence  in  Albemarle.  He  was  long  an  influential 
member  of  the  State  Legislature.  He  served  only 
one  (three)  terms  in  Congress,  but  that  sufficed  to 
give  him  an  historic  name,  for  he  had  the  honor  of 
proposing  the  Sub-Treasury  system.  At  his  death  he 
held  the  commission  of  major-general  in  the  militia 
of  Virginia.  A  braver,  truer,  more  generous  heart 
never  beat  in  any  man's  bosom  than  glowed  in  the 
breast  of  William  F.  Gordon." 

Another  contemporary  writer,  Crosby,  said  of 
him: 

"In  early  life  General  Gordon  attained  a  high 
position  in  the  State;  and  although  he  had  not  par- 
ticipated in  the  strife  of  politics  for  many  years  past, 
yet  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  esteemed  among 
the  worthiest  of  the  Democratic  leaders.  He  was  a 
rigid  disciple  of  the  State-Rights  school,  and  an  in- 
flexible champion  of  the  rights  of  the  South.  A 
fervid  oratory  was  his  most  characteristic  talent;  an 
incorruptible  integrity  his  distinguishing  virtue.  In 
the  relations  of  private  life  he  commanded  universal 
respect;  and  among  his  more  intimate  friends  he 
was  regarded  with  a  warm  and  constant  affection." 

In  an  address  on  "Virginia  Judges  and  Jurists," 
delivered  February  7,  1895,  at  a  banquet  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia,  at  Richmond, 
Mr.  John  Randolph  Tucker,  himself  a  distinguished 
and  able  exponent  of  Gordon's  school  of  political 
thought,  recalled  him  as  "the  planter,  the  lawyer, 
the  eloquent  and  charming  man,  who  as  the  proposer 
of  the  Sub-Treasury,  as  a  member  of  the  great  Con- 
vention of  1829-30,  and  as  the  patriot  son  of  Vir- 
ginia, deserves  to  live  freshly  ever  in  memory." 

In  person  he  was  well-formed  and  elegant.  His 
height  was  five  feet  ten  inches;  and  he  had  an  erect 


390    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

bearing  that  conveyed  an  impression  of  lofty  dignity. 
His  complexion  was  inclined  to  swarthiness,  and  his 
eyes  were  dark  and  piercing.  His  mouth  was  sym- 
metrical, and  his  smile  illuminating  and  winsome. 
His  countenance  bore  what  may  be  denominated  the 
histrionic  stamp — that  singular  and  indefinable  cast 
of  beauty  and  charm  which  has  characterized  so  many 
of  the  great  possessors  of  an  imaginative  power  of 
expression,  either  of  their  own  ideas  or  of  those  of 
others.  His  dark  hair,  which  grew  silvery  with  old 
age,  surmounted  in  abundance  till  the  end  a  head  of 
nobly  classic  mould.  His  voice  in  conversation  was 
sweet  and  well-modulated;  and  his  manners  with 
both  men  and  women  possessed  a  perennial  and  con- 
stant attraction.  His  person  was  one  that  the 
passer-by  in  the  street  would  turn  to  look  back  at; 
and  his  voice  in  oratorical  effort,  once  heard  by  the 
casual  stranger,  haunted  his  recollection  with  the 
hope  of  hearing  it  again. 

But  back  of  all  his  sweetness  and  serenity  and 
courtesy  burned  the  fires  of  a  just  and  inflexible  self- 
esteem  that  brooked  no  impertinence  or  intimation  of 
indignity;  and  it  is  strikingly  characteristic  of  the  im- 
pression made  upon  his  fellowmen  by  this  blended 
simplicity  and  sense  of  personal  loftiness,  that  in  all 
the  stirring  of  mighty  passions,  and  in  the  midst  of 
the  numerous  hostile  collisions  and  personal  affrays 
which  accompanied  the  politics  of  his  period,  he  fig- 
ured in  no  difficulty,  but  moved  through  them  all  un- 
touched— admired  and  respected  by  friend  and  foe 
alike. 

As  has  been  said  of  his  great  contemporary  and 
friend,  Mr.  Tazewell,  he  cared  nothing  for  the  repu- 
tation which  might  live  after  the  accomplishment  of 
the  work  which  he  had  in  hand  to  do.  He  seldom, 
perhaps  never,  concerned  himself  to  correct  his 
speeches  for  the  press.  His  method  of  delivery  was 
rapid,  and  was  so  accompanied  with  the  Demos- 
thenean  action  of  the  genuine  orator,  that  though  his 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    391 

enunciation  was  distinct  and  his  voice  possessed  of 
the  carrying  quality  in  an  unusual  degree,  and  char- 
acterized by  a  sonorous  sweetness — when  he  spoke 
the  average  reporter  of  the  day,  charmed  with  the 
magic  of  his  eloquence  and  lost  in  its  swift  current, 
laid  down  the  pencil  in  delighted  despair.  He  often 
said  laughingly  of  the  reporters  that  they  "seemed 
unable  to  take  him." 

His  literary  taste  and  acquirements,  and  his  pecu- 
liar theories  of  public  speaking  made  him  occasionally 
critical  of  the  speeches  of  other  men;  and  as  has  also 
been  said  of  Tazewell  that  "from  the  eloquent  parts 
of  such  speeches  as  Webster's  in  reply  to  Hayne  he 
would  turn  with  dislike,"  so  Gordon  did  turn,  if  not 
with  dislike,  at  least  with  indifference  from  that  very 
eloquence.  "I  heard  Mr.  Webster  yesterday  for  a 
little  while,"  he  wrote  of  the  Massachusetts  orator  on 
the  occasion  of  the  famous  Webster-Hayne  debate. 
"He  did  not  reach  the  Virginia  note." 

Quite  a  characteristic  illustration  of  this  spirit  of 
candid  though  not  ungenerous  criticism  is  shown  in  a 
letter  written  by  him  from  Richmond  in  January, 
1822,  in  which,  after  describing  the  forensic  style  and 
personal  appearance  of  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  he 
undertook  an  analysis  of  the  speech  of  George 
Tucker,  then  a  member  of  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives,  and  later  a  distinguished  pro- 
fessor in  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  author  of  a 
number  of  books  on  various  historical,  philosophical, 
financial  and  literary  subjects: 

"General  Tucker,  who  is  opposed  to  Mr.  Leigh's 
views  of  the  propriety  of  appointing  commissioners  to 
meet  those  of  Kentucky  on  the  subject,  is  to  answer 
Mr.  Leigh  to-day.  Indeed,  he  commenced  his  speech 
yesterday.  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  so  well  describe 
him — not  because  he  is  beyond  the  grasp  of  delinea- 
tion, but  because  his  manner  is  more  polished,  not  to 
say  artificial,  than  that  of  Mr.  Leigh;  and  the  promi- 


392 

nences  of  his  mind,  if  nature  ever  formed  them,  have 
been  so  smoothed  and  polished  down,  that  you  can 
find  no  lofty  eminence  on  which  to  repose,  and  view 
the  beauty  of  the  landscape  around  you.  His  exor- 
dium, which  was  delivered  yesterday,  was  very  beau- 
tiful— illustrated  by  many  historical  and  poetic  al- 
lusions, and  showing  at  once  the  polish  of  his  educa- 
tion and  the  extent  of  his  acquirements.  He  quotes 
often  from  Shakespeare ;  but  wanting,  as  I  think,  the 
true  poetic  temperament,  he  quotes  merely,  without 
the  forceful  energy  with  which  the  poet  thought  and 
wrote  himself.  His  talent  as  a  logician  I  cannot  por- 
tray, because  I  have  not  heard  the  argumentative  part 
of  his  speech;  but  I  fear  I  shall  find  that  he  has 
wasted  too  much  of  his  time  over  the  flowers  on  the 
margin  of  the  river  of  wisdom,  and  has  neglected  to 
fill  his  urn  with  its  precious  waters.  He  is,  however, 
an  intelligent  and  accomplished  gentleman;  and  has 
perhaps  more  of  the  rigidity  of  intellect  than  I  sup- 
pose." 

Enough  has  been  disclosed  in  these  pages  of  Gor- 
don's political  principles  and  of  his  methods  of  politi- 
cal thought  to  make  almost  superfluous  the  further 
statement  that  he  had  an  unbounded  admiration  for 
Mr.  Calhoun's  intellect  and  personal  character,  and 
that  he  regarded  his  speeches  and  public  papers  as 
those  of  the  master-spirit  in  the  political  sphere  of  his 
age ;  and  this,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that,  while  he  con- 
demned the  Force  Bill  and  Jackson's  proclamation, 
he  did  not  approve  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  attitude  on 
Nullification. 

If  it  may  be  said  of  him,  by  those  who  deride  the 
doctrine  of  State-Rights  and  State  sovereignty,  that 
he  was  "a  Southern  statesman  in  a  sectional  sense," 
the  same  characterization  may  with  equal  justice  be 
applied  to  Jefferson  and  to  George  Mason  and  to 
Randolph  of  Roanoke,  and  to  all  of  that  mighty 
throng  of  patriot  spirits  who  believed  that  the  Fed- 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    393 

eral  Constitution  meant  what  the  English  language 
of  it  purported  to  mean  and  express,  and  no  more; 
and  that  the  men  who  made  that  instrument  devised 
in  its  unparalleled  construction  and  formation  the 
most  perfect  and  perpetual  charter  of  free  govern- 
ment that  had  ever  emanated  from  the  mind  of  man. 
He  opposed  every  encroachment  upon  the  rights  of 
the  States,  because  he  held  with  unfailing  fervor  and 
patriotic  passion  that  the  safety  of  the  Union  lay 
alone  in  the  safety  of  the  States. 

With  a  full  understanding  and  appreciation  of  the 
evils  of  slavery,  he  viewed  it,  as  Calhoun  and  many 
other  Southern  statesmen  viewed  it  in  perfect  patriot- 
ism, as  an  institution  whose  permanence  involved  the 
continued  prosperity  of  the  South.  Yet  there  is  little 
doubt  that,  though  a  large  slave-owner,  he  would  un- 
hesitatingly have  espoused  the  cause  of  emancipa- 
tion at  any  time  when  he  believed  it  could  be  accom- 
plished without  outside  and  gratuitous  interference, 
and  without  resultant  danger  to  his  own  people  or  to 
the  governments  which,  as  he  conceived,  held  and  en- 
sured their  liberties. 

His  indifference  to  the  dictates  of  personal  ambi- 
tion when  weighed  in  the  balance  with  the  welfare  of 
his  country  is  illustrated  in  his  abandonment  of  a  vic- 
torious party  for  the  sake  of  an  incorruptible  prin- 
ciple; and  no  one  can  read  his  speech  in  proposing 
the  Sub-Treasury  to  Congress  in  1835  without  the 
profound  conviction  that  patriotism  burned  always  in 
his  bosom  with  a  bright  and  shining  flame. 

He  served  the  people  of  Virginia  with  an  unselfish 
devotion  that  has  been  excelled  by  that  of  no  other  of 
her  sons;  and  he  adorned  that  service  with  an  un- 
flinching courage  and  an  invincible  integrity,  than 
which  no  man  had  higher.  In  the  service  that  he  ren- 
dered to  his  State  he  rendered  an  even  greater  and 
more  lasting  one  to  the  whole  people  of  a  mighty 
and  now  indissoluble  Union,  in  the  formulation  of  the 
Independent  Treasury. 


394    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

It  seems  no  ordinary  coincidence  that  the  same 
county  in  "the  Red  Hills  of  Piedmont"  should  have 
produced  Jefferson's  mighty  charter  of  human  liberty, 
and  the  statute  which  the  eighth  President  of  the 
United  States  not  inaptly  described  as  "a  second 
Declaration  of  Independence" — Gordon's  Sub-Treas- 
ury act,  that  separated  the  Federal  Government  from 
the  banks. 


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Journals  of  the  House  of  Delegates  of  Virginia, 
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Debates  of  the  Virginia  Convention  of  1829-1830. 
Richmond,  1830. 


396    WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

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The  Madison  Papers  in  the  Library  of  Congress. 

Scott's  History  of  Orange  County,  Virginia.  Rich- 
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Mead's  Historic  Homes  of  the  Southwest  Moun- 
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Wood's  Albemarle  County  in  Virginia.  Char- 
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Howison's  History  of  Virginia.  2  Vols.  Phila- 
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The  University  of  Virginia:  Correspondence  of 
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Randall's  Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  3  Vols. 
New  York,  1858. 

Randolph's  Memoir  and  Correspondence  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  4  Vols.  Charlottesville,  1829. 

Patton's  Jefferson,  Cabell  and  the  University  of 
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Grigsby's  Virginia  Federal  Convention  of  1788. 
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Grigsby's  Virginia  Convention  of  1776.  Rich- 
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Grigsby's  Virginia  Convention  of  1829-1830. 
Richmond. 

Grigsby's  Discourse  on  Littleton  Waller  Tazewell. 
Norfolk,  1860. 

Howe's  Historical  Collections  of  Virginia. 
Charleston,  S.  C,  1849. 

Garland's  Life  of  John  Randolph.  2  Vols.  New 
York,  1850. 

Rives's  Life  and  Times  of  James  Madison.  3 
Vols.  Boston,  1859-1868. 

Slaughter's  St.  Mark's  Parish.    Richmond. 

Bouldin's  Home  Reminiscences  of  Randolph  of 
Roanoke.  Richmond,  1878. 

The  Richmond  Enquirer,  and  other  Virginia  news- 
papers. 

Niles's  Register. 


WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON    397 

Tyler's  Cradle  of  the  Republic.  Second  Ed. 
Richmond,  1906. 

Wirt's  Letters  of  a  British  Spy.  New  York, 
1832. 

Kennedy's  Life  of  William  Wirt.  2  Vols.  New 
York,  1872. 

Cooke's  History  of  Virginia.    Boston,  1883. 

Journals  of  the  United  States  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, 1829  to  1835.  Washington,  D.  C. 

Gales  &  Seaton's  Register  of  Debates.  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

Biographies  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  John  Randolph,  Van  Buren,  Gallatin, 
Calhoun,  Clay,  Webster,  Jackson,  Benton  and  Cass, 
in  "The  Statesmen  Series."  Boston,  1899-1906. 

Benton's  Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate. 
2  Vols.  New  York,  1854-1860. 

Wise's  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union.  Philadel- 
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Wise's  Life  of  Henry  A.  Wise.    New  York,  1899. 

Force's  National  Calendar  for  1832.  Washing- 
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Robertson's  Pocahontas  and  Her  Descendants. 
Richmond,  1887. 

Tyler's  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers.  3  Vols. 
Richmond  and  Williamsburg,  1884-1896. 

The  Works  of  John  C.  Calhoun.  4  Vols.  Charles- 
ton and  New  York,  1851-1854. 

Closkey's  Political  Cyclopedia.  Philadelphia, 
1860. 

The  Statesman's  Manual.  2  Vols.  New  York, 
1856. 

Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents.  10  Vols. 
Washington,  D.  C. 

O'Nedl's  Bench  and  Bar  of  South  Carolina.  2 
Vols.  Charleston,  S.  C. 

Johnson's  American  Politics.    New  York,  1892. 

Ford's  Rise  and  Growth  of  American  Politics. 
New  York,  1898. 


398     WILLIAM  FITZHUGH  GORDON 

Powell's  Nullification  and  Secession.     New  York, 

1897. 

Harris's  Political  Conflict  in  America.    New  York. 

1876. 

Moore's  The  American  Congress.    New  York. 

Lalor's  Political  Cyclopaedia.    3  Vols. 

The  Alumni  Bulletin   of  the   University   of  Vir- 
ginia.   Vol.  7.    New  Series. 

Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 
6  Vols.    New  York,  1888. 

Gordon's   Congressional   Currency.      New   York, 
1895. 

Kinley's  The  Independent  Treasury  of  the  United 
States.    New  York,  1893. 

Munford's  The  Two  Parsons.     Richmond,  1884. 

Reports  of  the  Virginia   State   Bar  Association. 
Richmond. 

White's   The  Making  of  South  Carolina.     New 
York,  1906. 

Thompson's  History  of  the  United  States.     New 
York,  1907. 

Von  Hoist's  Constitutional  History  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Democratic  Review.    New  York,  1837. 

The  National  Intelligencer    1850.     Washington, 
B.C. 

Scott's    The   Lost   Principle,"   by    "Barbarossa." 
Richmond,  1866. 

Journal  of  the  Secession  Convention  of  Virginia, 
1861.     Richmond,  1861. 

Thayer's  Cases  on  Constitutional  Law.     2  Vols. 
Cambridge,  Mass.     1895. 

Brock's  Virginia  and  Virginians.     2  Vols.     Rich- 
mond and  Toledo,  1888. 

^  McCarthy's  History  of  Our  Own  Times.     4  Vols. 
Chicago,  1 88 1. 


INDEX 


Abolition  doctrines,  Nat  Turn- 
ner's  insurrection  attributed 
to,  316. 

Abolitionists,  the  original  seces- 
sionists, 325. 

Act,  establishing  University  of 
Virginia,  96. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  58,  83 ; 
in  the  Whig  party,  192;  Gor- 
don's friendship  with,  270; 
sketch  of,  271-274;  and  the 
slavery  petitions,  321. 

Albemarle  County,  the  bar  of, 
51,  366;  commonwealth's  at- 
torneys of,  53,  83 ;  repre- 
sentatives of,  113. 

Alexander,  Mark,  156,  200; 
Whig  elector,  297,  299. 

"Alliance,  The  Grand,"  of 
Newry,  22. 

Algiers,  War  with,  89. 

Allen,  John  J.,  supports  the 
Sub-Treasury  bill,  277. 

American,  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham's 
speech  before  the,  325. 

American  Union,  the  rise,  pro- 
gress and  decline  of  the,  327. 

Ancestry,  Gordon's,  18. 

Anderson,  William,  160. 

Andrew,  Gov.  John  A.,  74. 

"Amis,"  opposed  to  the  Federal 
Constitution,  42 ;  nominate 
Monroe  against  Madison,  43. 

Archer,  William  S.,  182,  184; 
supports  the  Sub-Treasury  bill, 
277;  sketch  of,  277. 

Armistead,  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
William  Churchill,  29. 

Armistead,  Judith,  wife  of 
"King"  Carter,  29. 

Armistead  family,  the,  31. 

Articles  of  Confederation,  39. 

Bagenal  family,  the,  19. 
Bagenal,     Nicholas,     owner     of 
Sheepbridge,  20. 


Baker,  William,  in  the  Burr 
trial,  50. 

Baldwin,  Briscoe  G.f  157; 
sketch  of,  115;  Whig  elector, 
299. 

Ball,  Ann,  24. 

Bank  of  the  United  States,  Vir- 
ginia resolutions  in  regard  to, 
127 ;  unconstitutionality  of, 
2ii ;  Randolph  of  Roanoke  on 
rechartering,  211;  resolutions 
of  Virginia  legislature  on, 
212. 

"Banks,  Pet,"  Jackson's,  210. 

Banks,  Linn,  sketch  of,   109-110. 

Bar,  Gordon's  return  to  the,363 ; 
of  Albemarle  County,  366. 

Barbour,  James,  38,  156;  letter 
of,  to  Gordon,  53 ;  the  home 
of,  71 ;  originator  of  the  Lit- 
erary Fund,  92;  advises 
Tyler  against  resignation,  304. 

Barbour,  John  S.,  51,  54,  156, 
182. 

Barbour,  Philip  Pendleton,  38, 
74,  155,  156,  182,  397;  the 
home  of,  71;  sketch  of,  183- 
184. 

Barbour,  Col.  Thomas,  38,  53. 

Barnwell,  Robert  W.,  188,  200; 
in  the  Whig  party,  192; 
letter  of,  to  Gordon,  on  the 
Whigs,  300;  sketch  of,  302; 
delegate  to  the  Nashville  Con- 
vention, 339. 

"Barons  of  Potowmack  and 
Rappahannock,"  29. 

Barony  of  Newry,  the,  19. 

Barringer,  Daniel  L.,  188. 

Basis  of  representation  in  the 
Convention  of  1829-30,  158, 
163. 

Bassetts,  the,  31. 

Bay  ley,  Thomas  M.,  157. 

Beale,  James  M.  H.,  supports  the 
Sub-Treasury  bill,  277;  sketch 
of,  278-9. 

Beardsley,  Samuel,  201. 


Beinne,  Andrew,  160. 

Belvoir,  home  of  Hugh  Nel- 
son, 68.  . 

Belmont,  home  of  Dr.  Charles 
Everitt,  68. 

Bell,  John,  188,  277. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  188,  200; 
on  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme, 
236;  debate  on  the  expunging 
resolution  of,  210. 

Berkeleys,  the,  31. 

Birthday  Dinner,  the  Jetter- 
son,  192. 

Binney,  Horace,  277. 

"Black     and     Tan     Convention, 

the,"  47- 

"Bleeding  Nun,  The,"  55- 
Blesheim,      home      of      Andrew 

Stevenson,  71. 

"Blifil   and  Black  George,"  260. 
"Blind  Preacher,  The,"  26 ;  Gor- 
don's life  with,  49. 
Blues,  the  Richmond,  in  War  of 

1812,   80. 

Borts,    Gen.    Benjamin,    Gordon 
studies  law  with,  49;    in  the 
Burr  trial,  50;    burned  in  the 
Richmond  Theatre,  55. 
Bauldin,  Thomas  T.,  279. 
Braddock's  defeat,  64. 
Brandon,  on  James  River,  25. 
Breckenridge,    Gen.    James,    97; 

sketch  of,  1 1 6. 
"British  Spy,  The,"  26. 
Brodnax,  William  H.,  160. 
Brown's     Hotel,     the     Jefferson 

Birthday  Dinner  at,  193. 
Bruce,   Philip   A.'s,   "Social   Life 

in  Virginia,"  30. 
Buchanan,  James,  188,  282. 
Buckner,     Alexander,     testimony 
of,    in    the    Houston-Stanbery 
case,  853-856. 

Burgh's  "Political  Disquisi- 
tions," 383. 

Burr,  Aaron,  trial  of,  50. 
Burwells,  the,  31. 
Bushy  Park,  28,  30. 
Byrd,  William,  of  Westover,  68. 
Byron,  Moore's  Life  of,  375. 

Cabell,  Joseph  C.,  State  Senator, 
90;  rector  of  the  University, 
104;  sketch  of,  114-115. 

Cabell,  William,  the  elder,  43. 


Calhoun,  John  C.,  15;  in  the 
Whig  party,  192;  and  slavery, 
198,  199,  320;  eulogy  of,  on 
Warren  R.  Davis,  zoo; 
speech  of,  on  the  Force  bill, 
206;  rejoins  the  Democratic 
party  on  the  Sub-Treasury 
bill,  257;  votes  for  the  Sub- 
Treasury  bill,  258;  letter  of, 
to  Gordon,  on  the  presidential 
succession,  297-299 ;  resolu- 
tion of,  on  the  slavery  peti- 
tions, 322;  assails  the  slavery 
petitions,  324;  prophesy  of, 
with  regard  to  slavery,  325 ; 
on  State-Rights,  326 ;  recom- 
mends a  Southern  convention, 
328. 

Cambreling,  Churchill  C.,  188; 
in  the  debate  on  the  Sub- 
Treasury,  254. 

Campbell,  Jane,  21. 

Campbell,  Alexander,  158. 

Campbell,  William,  160. 

Camp-life  in  the  War  of 
1812,  79. 

Capitol,  Convention  of  1829-30, 
meets  in  the  State,  158. 

Carpet-baggers  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1867,  46. 

Carr,  Dabney,  13,  51,  55,  73. 

Carr,  Dabney,  the  younger, 
73,  78. 

Carr,  Samuel,  sketch  of,  no. 

Carters,  the,   31. 

Carter,  Camp,  in  the  War  of 
1812,  81;  Gordon's  letters 
from,  83. 

Carter,  "King,"  29. 

Carter,  Robert,  the  councillor, 
27,  29. 

Carter,  Robert  W.,  34. 

Cathedral  of  Nismes,  model  of 
Virginia  State  Capitol,  158. 

Gary,  Archibald,  and  Patrick 
Henry,  65. 

Castle  Hill,  home  of  William 
C.  Rives,  65,  66. 

Central     College,     site     of     the 

University,  90,  95. 
Chapman,  Henley,  160. 
Charlottesville,  71. 
Chase,    Hale    and    Seward    vote 
to  receive  petitions  to  dissolve 
the  Union,  324. 


400 


Cheves,   Judge,   delegate   to   the  Compromises      on      "the      basis 
Nashville  Convention,  339.  question,"     164;      of     Federal 

Chestnutt,    Colonel,    delegate    to         Constitutional  questions,  327. 

the  Nashville  Convention,  339-  Compromise    bill    of    1850,    of- 

_,..         T        ,    TTT  fered   by    Clay,    328;     debates 

Chmn,  Joseph  W.,  279.  * 

Choate,  Rufus,  278.  .      . 

Churchill,    Lucy,    wife    of    John  Congress,    Gordons    election    to, 
Gordon,  27,  129.  l825     Gordon's   colleagues   in, 

Churchill,    Col.    Armistead,    28,         l8z' 

29    ,0        .  Congressmen,  manners  and  cus- 

Churchil'l,      Priscilla,     wife      of         toms  of,  348. 

Councillor     Carter     of     Norn-  "Conservative,"     Democrats     op- 
jn;    29  pose     the     Sub-Treasury    bill, 

Churchill,     William,     the     emi-         2*%\ 

grant    30.  Constitution,     Wendell     Phillips 

Churchi'lls,  'the,  31.  „  on  .the».  325. 

Cilley  and  Graves  duel,  351.  Constitutional       Conventions     in 
Cistercian     Abbey     at      Newry,         Virginia,  46,  47. 

the    j  Convention  of   1829-30,  the,   15; 


,   Nannie,   H,  sketch 

0  '  277'  155;     account    of,    in    Niles's 

Clark,     Lewis     and,     expedition  Register,    160;     dissensions   in, 

°*i  °7-  1  68;    adjournment  of,  181. 

Clark,     George     Rogers,     birth-  Convention,     the     Southern,     at 

place  of,  72,  73.  Nashville  in  1850,  333. 

Clay,  Clement   C.,   188.  Convention  of  slaveholding  States 

Clay,  Henry,  83;  opposes  the  Sub-  recommended  by  Calhoun,  328. 

Treasury    bill,    257;      amend-  Convention,     the     Virginia,     of 

ment  of,   to   Calhoun's   resolu-  1788,  34,  39. 

tion    on    the    slavery   petitions,  Conway,  Col.  Edwin,  24. 

322;     the  voice  of,   380;    and  Conway,  Milicent,  24. 

Randolph  of  Roanoke,  381.  Cooke,    John    R.,    160;     compro- 

Claypoole,   Mr.,   delegate   to  the  mise    proposition    of,    on    "the 

Nashville  Convention,  334.  basis,"  164;    sketch  of,  165. 

Clayton,  Arthur,  80.  Cooke,  John  Esten,  165. 

Clayton,  John  M.,  188.  Cooke,  Philip  Pendleton,  165. 

Clayton,    Mr.,    of    Georgia,    in  Corwin,  Thomas,  278. 

the  debate  on  the   Sub-Treas-  County  Down,  18. 

Ur7>    255  >     speech   of,    on   the  Craney    Island,    the    British    at- 

newspapers,  359-362.  tack  on,  77. 

Cobb,  John  Addison,  56.  Crawford  Democrats,  189. 

Cobb,  Howell  56.  Crawford,  William  H.,  sketch  of, 

Cobb,  Thomas  Read  Rootes,  56.  196- 

Cockburn,    Admiral,    in    Chesa-  Crockett,  David,  188;    sketch  of, 

peake  Bay,  77.  267,   288  ;     anecdotes    of,   268- 

Cocke,    Dr.    Charles,    sketch    of,  270. 

II2-  Crosby    on    Gordon's    character 

Cocke,  Gen.  John  H.,  sketch  of,  and  career,  389. 

8  1,  83,  85.  Custis,    G.    W.    P.,    consents    to 

Cohens    Versus    Virginia,"    128,  the    removal    of    Mrs.    Wash- 

283.  ington's  body,  285. 

Coles,  Edward,  71.  Customs    and    manners    of    Con- 

Coles,  Tucker,  78.  gressmen,  348. 
26                                           40I 


Daniel,  Henry,  201. 
Davenport,  Thomas,  277. 
Davis,  Jefferson,  46,  347. 
Davis,  Warren  R-,  188,  278;    in 

the  Whig  party,   192;    sketch 

of,  200. 
Debate,  on  the  duelling  act,  174; 

on  the   Deposit  bill,  253;    on 

the  Sub-Treasury,  253. 
Decatur,    Commodore,    and    the 

War  with  Algiers,  89. 
Delegates,  names  of  the,  to  the 

Nashville  Convention,  346. 
"Democratic       Review,       The," 

sketch  of  Benjamin  Hardin  in, 

278. 

Deposit  bill,  debate  on  the,  253. 
Deposits,    removal    of   the,    209 ; 

effect  of,  227. 
District  of  Columbia,  petitions  to 

abolish  slavery  in  the,  322. 
Doddridge,     Philip,     160,     179; 

sketch  of,  185;    speech  on  the 

Judicary  act,  282. 
Dred  Scott  Case,  210. 
Dromgoole,  George  C.,  157. 
Duane,  William  J.,  209. 
Duelling,  debate  on,  in  the  Con- 
vention of  1829-30,  174. 
Duke,  R.  T.  W.,  52. 


Edgehill,  home  of  Gov.  Thomas 

Mann  Randolph,  69. 
Edgeworth,  burning  of,  58;    the 

new  house  at,  63. 
Ellsworth,  William  H.,  201. 
Elgin,    the    commissary    records 

of,  20. 

Emancipation,    attitude    of    Vir- 
ginia towards,  316. 
England,  War  of  1812  with,  76. 
"Enquirer,  The  Richmond,"  358  : 

on     Gordon's     character     and 

career,  386. 
Eppes,    Mrs.    J.    W.,    Jefferson's 

daughter,  57. 
Everett,  Dr.  Charles,  68;    sketch 

of,  no. 

Everett,  Edward,  188,  278. 
Ewing,    Mr.,    of    Ohio,    in    the 

debate    on    the    Sub-Treasury, 

254. 
"Exchequer      Plan,"      President 

Tyler's,  261. 


Expunging  Resolutions,  Benton's, 
210;  instructions  of  Virginia 
legislature  as  to,  304. 


Faulkner,  Charles  James,  a 
Whig  elector,  299. 

Federal  Constitution,  adoption  of 
the,  40. 

Federal  Hill,  home  of  the 
Rookes  family,  56. 

Federal  jurisdiction,  Virginia 
resolutions  on,  128. 

Federalist  hostility  to  Jefferson, 
150. 

Field,  Richard  H.,  52. 

Fithian,  Philip  Vickars,  Diary 
of,  27. 

Fitzhugh,  William  Henry,  157. 

Fitzhughs,  Chatham,  the  seat  of 
the,  44. 

Force's  "National  Calendar," 
slavery  statistics  in,  321. 

Force  bill,  The,  206. 

Foster,  Thomas,  201. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  William  B. 
Giles  compared  to,  155. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  and  aboli- 
tion, 321. 

Francisco,  Peter,  sketch  of,   109. 

Frederickville  parish,  in  Albe- 
marle  County,  62. 

"Friendship,  The,"  and  John 
Paul  Jones,  26. 

Frothingham,  Rev.  O.  B.,  on  the 
Union,  325. 

Frugality  extolled  in  the  Vir- 
ginia Constitutions,  332. 

Fry,  Joshua,  70;    home  of,  71. 

Fugitive  slave  law  in  the  com- 
promise of  1850,  332. 

Fulton,  John  H.,  279. 


Gales,  Joseph,  editor,  sketch  of, 

359- 

Gallatin,  Albert,  83. 
Garland,    James,    289;     opposes 

the  Sub-Treasury  bill,  258. 
Garrison,  William  Loyd,  declares 

for   a   "Northern   Conference," 

325 ;    on  the  Constitution,  325. 
Garnett,   Mr.,   a  delegate  to  the 

Nashville    Convention,    339. 
Gaudaloupe  Hidalgo,  the  Treaty 

of.   33O. 


402 


"Gerrymander"  of  Madison's  dis- 
trict, 42. 

Germanna,  68 ;  home  of  James 
Gordon  of  Orange,  35; 
Colonel  Byrd's  account  of,  35; 
the  tragedy  at,  317. 

General  Assembly,  Gordon  in 
the,  107 ;  character  of  the, 
107 ;  training  school  of  states- 
men, 114. 

George,  John  B.,  160. 

Ghent,  Treaty  of,  83. 

Gholson,  James  H.,  277;  sketch 
of,  275 ;  delegate  to  the  Nash- 
ville Convention,  334. 

Giddings,  Mr.,  presents  petition 
for  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
323 ;  resolution  of,  on  slavery, 
330. 

Giles,   William   B.,   155;    sketch 

of,  137- 

Gilmer,  Francis  Walker,  73, 
79,  8 1. 

Gilmer,  Dr.  George,  65 ;  home 
of,  72. 

Gilmer,  Thomas  Walker,  65, 
71,  82. 

Glasgow,  tobacco  trade  with,  32. 

"Globe,  The,"  62. 

Goode,  William  O.,  156;  dele- 
gate to  the  Nashville  Conven- 
tion, 334,  339. 

Gordon,  Alexander,  of  Salter- 
hill,  21. 

Gordon,  Elizabeth,  35. 

Gordon,  George,  22. 

Gordon,  James,  first  of  Sheep- 
bridge,  19,  21. 

Gordon,  Rev.  James,  of  Com- 
ber, 20. 

Gordon,  Col.  James,  of  Lancaster, 
21 ;  the  emigrant,  23,  24; 
journal  of,  24;  Whitefield's 
visit  to,  24,  34. 

Gordon,  Col.  James,  second,  of 
Lancaster,  in  Conventions  of 
1776  and  1788,  46. 

Gordon,  James,  of  Orange,  26, 
34»  35!  elected  to  the  Conven- 
tion of  1788,  38,  46;  letters  of, 
to  Madison,  37,  40;  political 
views  of,  39;  described  in 
Miss  Lee's  "Journal,"  44;  large 
landed  proprietor,  45 ;  death 
of,  46. 


Gordon,  James  Waddell,  mem- 
ber of  the  Virginia  Conven- 
tion of  1901,  47. 

Gordon,  John,  of  Middlesex,  the 
emigrant,  22,  27,  28. 

Gordon,  John,  of  Temple- 
gowran,  23. 

Gordon,  Reuben  Lindsay,  Jr.,  in 
Convention  of  1901,  47. 

Gordon,  Samuel,  of  Sheepbridge, 
22. 

Gordon,  Captain  William,  of 
Sheepbridge,  23. 

Gordon,  William  Fitzhugh,  son 
of  James  Gordon  of  Orange, 
26 ;  pupil  of  James  Waddell 
Gordon,  26 ;  his  name,  45  ;  in 
Convention  of  1829-30,  40; 
birth  of,  48 ;  early  life,  48 ; 
education,  48,  49;  at  Spring 
Hill  Academy,  49;  classical 
acquirements,  49 ;  studies  law 
with  Gen.  Benjamin  Botts,  49; 
comes  to  the  bar,  51 ;  begins 
practice  at  Orange,  51;  re- 
moves to  Charlottesville,  51; 
commonwealth's  attorney  of 
Albemarle,  51 ;  elected  to 
the  General  Assembly,  — ; 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  94,  95 ; 
elected  to  the  Convention  of 
1829-30,  104;  elected  to  Con- 
gress, 104;  in  the  General 
Assembly,  107 ;  legislative 
work,  122,  123 ;  letter  to  Jef- 
ferson, 130,  131;  address  to 
Lafayette,  144,  145 ;  letter  to 
Jefferson  on  his  lottery  bill, 
150;  offers  compromise  propo- 
sition in  Convention  of 
1829-30,  164;  feature  of  his 
compromise  plan,  169;  con- 
vention adopts  his  compro- 
mise plan  of  "the  mixed  basis," 
169;  speech  on  the  "basis," 
170;  in  the  Whig  party,  192; 
votes  in  Congress  on  internal 
improvements,  195;  presents 
the  Virginia  anti-bank  resolu- 
tions to  Congress,  211;  speech 
in  support  of  anti-bank  resolu- 
tions, 213-225;  originates  the 
Independent  Treasury  or 
"Sub-Treasury,"  226 ;  ac- 


403 


quires  soubriquet  of  "Sub- 
Treasury  Gordon,"  229; 
speech  in  support  of  his  Sub- 
Treasury  bill,  232;  reintro- 
duces  Sub-Treasury  bill,  237; 
speech  on  reintroduction  of 
Sub-Treasury  bill,  241-253 ; 
contemporaries  of,  in  Con- 
gress, 266 ;  literary  bent,  266 ; 
speeches  in  Congress  on  Nulli- 
fication, on  the  Virginia  Reso- 
lutions, on  the  Bank  Deposit 
Bill,  and  on  the  Judiciary  Act, 
281;  speech  in  Congress  on 
the  proposal  to  remove  Wash- 
ington's body,  285-287;  at 
Mount  Vernon,  288;  letter  to 
his  constituents,  289-292 ; 
Tyler's  letter  to,  on  the  presi- 
dential nomination,  293 ;  de- 
feated for  Congress,  297; 
Calhoun's  letter  to,  on  presi- 
dential succession,  297-299;  a 
Whig  elector,  299;  letter  of 
R.  W.  Barnwell  to,  on  the 
Whigs,  300;  letter  of,  to 
Tyler,  advising  against  resig- 
nation from  the  Senate,  305 ; 
delegate  to  the  Nashville  Con- 
vention, 334;  chairman  of 
Resolutions  Committee  in 
Nashville  Convention,  345 ; 
returns  to  the  bar,  363;  dis- 
cusses Shakespeare  as  a  law- 
yer with  William  Green,  367; 
letters  of,  to  his  wife,  373-377, 
375*379;  his  J°ve  of  oratory, 
380;  death  of,  385;  personal 
appearance  and  characteristics 
°f»  39°;  attitude  of,  as  to 
State-Rights  and  slavery,  391. 

Gordon,  William  Fitzhugh,  Jr., 
a  secretary  of  the  Virginia 
Secession  Convention,  46. 

Gordon  family,  tragedy  in  the, 
at  Germanna,  317. 

Gordons,  of  Lesmoir,  21 ;  of 
Maryvale,  22. 

Gouge,  William  M.,  defence  of 
the  Sub-Treasury  act  by,  261. 

Governor,  office  of,  in  Virginia, 
118. 

Governors  of  Virginia,  during 
Gordon's  legislative  service, 
118;  from  1776  to  1830,  119. 


"Grand      Alliance,      The,"      of 

Newry,  22. 
Graves  and  Cilley,  duel  between, 

35i- 

Grayson,  William,  42,  68. 
Great  Britain,  war  witn,  76. 
Green,  John  W.,  150,  160. 
Green,    William,    sketch   of,    74, 

367- 

Greenway,  Sarah,  22. 
Gregg,    Colonel,    a    delegate    to 

the  Nashville  Convention,  334. 
Grigsby,    Hugh   Blair,   157;     on 

the    removal    of    the    deposits, 

227. 


Hale,  Chase  and  Seward,  vote  to 
receive  petitions  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  324. 

Hamilton  and  Madison,  39. 

Hampton,  the  capture  of,  77. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  of  Berke- 
ley, 24. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  the  signer, 
25. 

Harrison,  Hannah,  wife  of 
Armistead  Churchill,  28. 

Harrison,  Mary,  wife  of  James 
Gordon  of  Lancaster,  the 
emigrant,  24,  35. 

Harrison,  Nathaniel,  of  Wake- 
field,  24,  25,  29;  first  Harri- 
son owner  of  Brandon,  25. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  25 ; 
supported  by  Northern  Whigs, 
300;  president  of  the  Indiana 
Territorial  Convention,  319. 

Harrison  and  Tyler,  election  of, 

304- 
Harrisons,       The,       of       James 

River,  31. 
"Hard  Money,"  The,  feature  of 

the  Sub-Treasury  bill,  258. 
Harden,     Benjamin,     sketch     of, 

278. 
Hartford    Convention,    the,    89 ; 

and    the    spirit    of    separation, 

327- 

Harvard,  John,  25. 
Hayne,  Robert  G.,  188. 
Hay,      George,      in      the      Burr 

trial,  50. 
Helper,    Hinton    R.,    author    of 

"The  Impending  Crisis,"   153. 


404 


Henry,  Patrick,  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1788,  39,  40,  42;  and 
Archibald  Gary,  65. 

Hesselius,  John,  portrait  painter, 
27. 

Hopewell,  home  of  Rev.  James 
Waddell,  64. 

Houston,  Samuel,  trial  of,  by 
Congress,  352;  sketch  of,  352. 

Independent  Treasury,  the,  ori- 
gin of,  90;  devised  by  Gor- 
don, 226;  bill  establishing, 
231;  Gordon's  speech  in  sup- 
port of  his  bill  for,  232; 
amendment  to  the  Bank  De- 
posit Bill,  256;  vote  on,  256; 
functions  and  operations  of, 
263 ;  "A  Second  Declaration 
of  Independence,"  263  ;  adop- 
tion of,  by  Van  Buren,  303 ; 
destroys  the  Whig-Republican 
coalition,  303. 

Indiana,  memorializes  Congress 
to  permit  slavery,  319. 

Insurrection,  Nat  Turner's,  effect 
of,  on  the  public  mind,  315. 

Internal  Improvements,  Virginia 
resolutions  in  regard  to,  135. 

Iredell,  James,  188. 

Irish  Rebellion  of  1798,  Gordons 
in  the,  23. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  at  New  Or- 
leans, 82,  83  ;  inauguration  of, 
152;  first  message  of,  188, 
189;  personality  of,  190;  hos- 
tility of  State-Rights  Demo- 
crats to,  191 ;  toast  of,  at  the 
Jefferson  Birthday  Dinner, 
193 ;  attempt  to  assassinate, 
201. 

Janney,  John,  a  Whig  elector, 
299. 

Jefferson,  Peter,  70. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  his  economy 
of  time,  57 ;  a  pupil  of  Mr. 
Maury,  63 ;  letter  of,  to 
Cabell,  on  the  University,  98 ; 
death  of,  104;  and  his  phy- 
sician, ii i ;  political  letter  of, 
to  Gordon,  132;  his  lottery 
bill,  149 ;  emancipation  of  his 
slaves,  151. 


Jefferson  Birthday  Dinner,  the, 
192. 

Jeffrey,  George,  67. 

Johnson,  Cave,  188;  and  the 
Houston-Stanbery  affair,  352. 

Johnson,  Chapman,  156,  158, 
160;  and  the  University  of 
Virginia,  97;  sketch  of,  116; 
a  Whig  elector,  299 ;  con- 
demns removal  of  the  de- 
posits, 228,  284. 

Johnson,  Richard  M.,  188,  293; 
nominated  for  Vice-President, 
297. 

"Johnson's  Wife  of  Louisiana," 
201. 

Johnston,  Alexander,  284;  ac- 
count of  the  operation  of  the 
Sub-Treasury  by,  230. 

Jones,  John  Paul,  27. 

Joynes,  Thomas  R.,  157,  160. 

Journalism  of  the  period,  Mr. 
Clayton  on  the,  357. 

Judiciary  Act,  Gordon's  speech 
on  the  25th  section  of  the, 
281-282. 

Judiciary  Committee  of  the 
House,  201. 

Keswick,  home  of  the  Pages,  65. 

Kentucky  Resolutions,  the,  ap- 
proved by  the  Hartford  Con- 
vention, 89. 

Kinloch,  Eliza,  68. 

Kinloch,  residence  of  Hugh  Nel- 
son, 67. 

King,  Preston,  offers  resolution  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  331. 

King,  William  R.,  188. 

"Kitchen  Cabinet,"  Jackson's, 
198. 


Lafayette,  visit  of,  to  America, 
140;  in  Albemarle  County, 
141 ;  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, 144;  visit  of,  to  Rich- 
mond, 147 ;  resolutions  of 
General  Assembly  in  regard 
to,  148. 

Latimer,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Worm- 
ely,  29. 

Latin  and  Greek,  Gordon's 
knowledge  of,  49. 


405 


Lawrence,  attempt  of,  to  assas- 
sinate the  President,  201. 

Le  Compte,  Joseph,  resolution  of, 
to  limit  terms  of  Federal 
judges,  224. 

Lee,  Ann,  wife  of  Gen.  Henry 
Lee,  45. 

Lee,  "Lighthorse  Harry,"  45. 

Lee,  Lucy,  "Journal  of  a  Young 
Lady  of  Virginia,"  by,  44. 

Lee,  General  Robert  E.,  44. 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  42. 

Leigh,  Benjamin  Watkins,  155, 
160,  192,  391 ;  compromise 
proposition  of,  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1829-30,  164;  sketch  of, 
167,  169;  election  of,  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  295 ; 
condemns  the  removal  of  the 
deposits,  228 ;  refuses  to  vote 
for  expunging  resolutions,  304. 

Leigh,  William,  156. 

Letters   of   Gordon   to   his   wife, 

373-377- 

Lewis,  Meriwether,  67;  birth- 
place of,  73. 

"Liberator,  The,"  declares  for  a 
Northern  confederacy,  325. 

Lindsay,  Elizabeth,  56,  57. 

Lindsay,  George,  85. 

Lindsay,  Maria,  65. 

Lindsay,  Col.  Reuben,  56. 

Lindsay,  William,  80. 

Literary  Fund,  The,  92. 

Livingston  Edward,  188. 

Loan  bill,  the  University,  100. 

Logan,  home  of  Capt.  Lewis 
Walker,  64. 

Lord  Montgomery's  regiment,  20, 

Lottery  bill,  Jefferson's,  149. 

Loyall,  George,  70,  157;  and 
the  University,  101 ;  sketch  of, 
1 1 6,  117;  on  Littleton  W. 
Tazewell,  187;  contest  of,  with 
Thomas  Neaton,  195;  votes 
against  the  Sub-Treasury  bill, 
299. 

Lucas,  Edward,  279. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  156. 

Madison,  James,  candidate  for 
the  Convention  of  1788,  37; 
letter  of  James  Gordon  of 
Orange,  to,  37,  40;  and  Mon- 


roe,  in  their  first  canvass  for 
Congress,  44;    in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1829-30,  155,  156,  160. 
Mangum,  Willie  P.,  vote  of,  for 

President,  300. 

Mann,  Horace,  in  the  debate  on 
the    Sub-Treasury    bill,    255 ; 
favors  disunion,  325. 
Marye,  John  L.,  a  Whig  elector, 

299. 
Marshall,    Humphrey,    duel    of, 

with  Henry  Clay,  348. 
Marshall,  Chief  Justice,  in  the 
Burr  trial,  50;  compromise 
measure  on  "the  basis"  pro- 
posed by,  164;  sketch  of,  166, 
192. 

Martin,   Senator  Thomas  S.,  73. 

Mason,  George,  13. 

Mason,  James  Murray,  sketch  of, 
118;  author  of  the  fugitive 
slave  law  of  1850,  332. 

Mason,  John  G.,  156,  160; 
sketch  of,  276. 

Mason,  Thompson,  13. 

Massie,  Thomas,  Jr..  157;  sketch 
of,  158. 

Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  nullify  act  of 
Congress,  77. 

Maupin,  Calvin  S.,  67. 

Maury,  Rev.  James,  62,  63. 

Maury,  Rev.  Matthew,  63. 

Maury,  Commodore  M.  F.,  63. 

McComas,  William,  277. 

McCrea,  Mr.,  in  the  Burr 
trial,  50. 

"McCulloch  Versus  Maryland," 
283. 

McDuffie,  George,  200,  278 ; 
sketch  of,  203. 

McGuffey,  Dr.  William  H.,  382. 

Meadows,  the,  home  of  Capt. 
James  Lindsay,  64. 

Meerbach,  F.  W.,  67. 

Mercer,  Charles  Fenton,  156,  160, 
279. 

Merchants'  Hope,  25. 

Merchant*,  Scotch,  in  the  to- 
bacco trade,  32. 

Meriwether,  David,  67. 

Meriwether,  David,  the  younger, 
67. 

Meriwether,  Nicholas,  65. 

Meriwether,  Dr.  Thomas,  20,  68. 


406 


Militia,  the  Virginia,  86. 

"Military  District  No.   i,"  46. 

Missouri  compromise,  Virginia 
resolutions  on  the,  125,  126. 

Missouri  Compromise  act,  the, 
127 ;  and  slavery,  320. 

"Mixed  Basis,"  Gordon's  scheme 
of  the,  adopted  by  the  Con- 
vention of  1829-30,  169. 

Monroe,  James,  155,  156;  con- 
test of,  with  Madison,  for  Con- 
gress, 43,  44;  residence  of,  71; 
elected  President,  90;  in  the 
Convention  of  1829-30,  156. 

Monroe,  Joseph  J.,  51. 

Monticello,  70;  Mrs.  Gordon 
at,  57. 

Montpelier,  home  of  James 
Madison,  72. 

Moore,  Elizabeth,  68. 

Moore,  Samuel  McDowell,  279 ; 
in  the  debate  on  the  Sub- 
Treasury  bill,  254. 

Munford,  George  Wythe,  sketch 
of,  107,  108. 

"Mushroom  Banks,"  growth  of 
the,  229. 


Nashville  Convention,  the,  called 
by  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
328;  assembles  in  1850,  333; 
resolutions  of,  335-339;  re- 
assembles, 340;  resolutions  of, 
on  reassembling,  340-344; 
newpaper  reports  of,  345 ; 
Gordon  chairman  of  Resolu- 
tions Committee  in,  345  ; 
names  of  states  represented  in, 
346;  names  of  delegates  to, 
346;  cradle  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  347. 

Nashville,  Gordon's  letters  from, 

334,  339- 
"National     Intelligencer,     The," 

353,  357,  358. 

National  Republicans,  growth  of 
the,  190. 

"Nat's  Insurrection,"  in  South- 
ampton County,  309-315. 

Nelson,  Hugh,  of  Belvoir,  68; 
sketch  of,  113. 

New  England  threatens  to  secede, 
76;  attempt  of,  to  create  a 
Northern  confederacy,  326. 


New  Orleans,  the  battle  of, 
82,  83. 

Newry,  in  County  Down,  Ire- 
land, 18. 

Newton,  Mr.,  delegate  to  the 
Nashville  Convention,  334, 

339- 

Nicholas,  Lieutenant,  82. 

Nicholas,  Wilson   Gary,  71. 

"Niles's  Register,"  160;  on  the 
feeling  in  the  Convention  of 
1829-30,  161,  162;  on  the 
basis  of  representation,  169; 
on  the  Jefferson  Birthday  Din- 
ner, 193. 

Nismes,  the  cathedral  at,  the 
model  of  the  Virginia  Capitol, 
158. 

Nomini  Hall,  home  of  Coun- 
cillor Carter,  27,  29. 

North  Carolina  and  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution,  41. 

Northwest  Territory,  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  the,  319. 

Northern  Confederacy,  New 
England's  attempt  to  create 
a,  326. 

North  and  South,  the  widening 
breach  between,  326;  division 
of,  on  slavery  in  1850,  331. 

Nullification,  by  New  England 
States,  77 ;  and  the  tariff, 
190;  Randolph  of  Roanoke  on, 
211 ;  McDuffie  in  the  South 
Carolina  Convention  on,  203 ; 
the  story  of,  204,  205 ;  by 
various  States  of  the  Union, 
205. 

Nullifiers,  The,  204. 


O'Connell,  Daniel,  speech  of,  on 
the  Hill  of  Tara,  330. 

Ohio  and  slavery,  319. 

Oratory,   Gordon's   love  of,   380. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  prohibiting 
slavery  in  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, 319. 

Ordinance  of  Secession,  the  Vir- 
ginia, 347. 

"Oregon  Trail,  The,"  67. 

"Osborne  Versus  Bank  of  the 
United  States,"  263. 


407 


Page,  Prof.  James  Morris,  66. 
Page,  Mann,  29;    and  Jefferson, 

383- 

Page,  Dr.  Mann,  65. 
Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  on  "The 

Old  Virginia  Lawyer,"  382. 
Page,  Prof.  Thomas  Walker,  66. 
Pakenham,     General,     at     New 

Orleans,  82. 

Panic  of  1816,  the,  90. 
"Parsons,  The  Two,"  by  Mun- 

ford,  107. 
Party  feeling,  358. 
Patton,      John      Mercer,      279; 

sketch  of,  280. 
Pen  Park,  home  of  Dr.   George 

Gilmer,  65. 

Pendleton,  Philip  C.,  160. 
Petitions,    the    slavery,    in    Con- 
gress,   319,    320;     from    the 

Quakers,  321. 
Peyton,  Balic,  278. 
"Piedmont,  The  Red   Hills  of," 

64,  75- 

Pickens,   Francis  W.,  speech  of, 
on  the  Sub-Treasury  bill,  257. 
Pierce,    Franklin,    votes    for   the 
Sub-Treasury  bill,  257. 

Pillow,  Gideon  J.,  in  the  Nash- 
ville Convention,  344. 

Pinckney,  Henry  L.,  and  the 
slavery  petitions,  322. 

Pleasants,  Governor  James,  156, 
157,  160;  sketch  of,  120,  121. 

Pleasants,  John  Hampden,  edi- 
tor of  the  "Whig,"  305,  358. 

"Political  Disquisitions,"  Burgh's, 
383- 

Politics,  Jeffersonian,  124. 

Polk,  James  K.,  188;  opens  the 
debate  on  the  Deposit  bill, 
253 ;  Sub-Treasury  act  re- 
stored in  administration  of, 
259. 

Portraits  of  James  and  John 
Gordon,  27. 

Powell,  Brook,  25. 

Prentis,  Joseph,  157. 

"President,"  loss  of  the  frig- 
ate, 83. 

Presidential  vote  in  1835,  300. 

Preston,  Gov.  James  B.,  sketch 
of,  119. 

"Princeton,"  explosion  on  the, 
65,  91. 


Proclamation,  Jackson's  Nullifi- 
cation, 205. 

Provost,  Mr.,  59,  66. 

Pryor,  Roger  A.,  editor  of  "The 
South,"  389. 

Public  school  system  in  Vir- 
ginia, 382. 


Quaker     anti-slavery     agitation, 

320. 

Quiney,  Richard,  25. 
Quiney,  Thomas,  25. 


Ragland,  James,  79. 

Ragland,  Nathaniel,  62. 

Randolph,  Edmund,  in  the  Burr 
trial,  50. 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke,  15; 
74»  I55»  *6o,  192,  200,  278; 
foreman  of  the  Burr  grand 
jury,  50;  in  the  Convention 
of  1829-30,  174;  speech  on  the 
anti-duelling  act,  176;  on  the 
Bank  bill,  211;  on  Nullifica- 
tion, 211 ;  denunciation  of  the 
alliance  of  Adams  and  Clay, 
260;  comment  of,  on  the  Con- 
stitution, 283 ;  and  slavery  in 
the  Northwest  Territory,  319. 

Randolph  Peyton,   13,   55. 

Randolph,  Thomas  Jefferson,  81 ; 
address  of,  to  Lafayette,  142. 

Randolph,  Thomas  Mann,  102, 
119;  sketch  of,  69. 

Randolph,  Mrs.,  57. 

Randolph,  William,  of  Tucka- 
hoe,  29. 

Randolph,  William,  of  Turkey 
Island,  and  his  descend- 
ants, 69. 

Ravensworth,  home  of  Gen.  W. 
H.  F.  Lee,  45. 

Removal  of  the  deposits,  207 ; 
effect  of,  227. 

Resolutions  of  1798,  the  Vir- 
ginia, 72. 

Resolutions  of  the  Nashville 
Convention  of  1850,  335-339, 
340-344. 

Representatives  in  Congress  in 
1830,  188. 

Republican-Whig  ticket,  the, 
299,  300. 


408 


Richmond  Blues,  The,  in  the 
War  of  1812,  80. 

Richardson,  Robert,  25. 

Rivanna  river,  the,  70. 

River  barons  of  Colonial  Vir- 
ginia, 31. 

Rives,  William  Cabell,  65; 
sketch  of,  66;  aide  to  Gen. 
Cocke,  8 1 ;  and  the  University 
of  Virginia,  98,  99;  sketch  of, 
112,  113;  opposes  the  Sub- 
Treasury  scheme,  238;  move- 
ment to  elect  to  Congress,  288 ; 
elected  Senator,  288. 

Ritchie,  Thomas,  sketch  of,  358. 

Roane,  John,  157,  160. 

Roane,  Spencer,  articles  by,  284. 

Robertson,  John,  in  the  debate 
on  the  Sub-Treasury  Bill,  254; 
sketch  of,  277,  278. 

Robertson,  William,  J.,  52; 
sketch  of,  74. 

Robertson,  William  Gordon, 
member  of  the  Virginia  Con- 
vention of  1901,  47. 

Rockfish  Gap,  meeting  of  the 
University  Commissioners  at, 
93- 

Rodney,  Caesar,  in  the  Burr 
trial,  50. 

Rosegill,  Bruce's  account  of  the 
house  at,  30. 

Rootes,  Mary  Robinson,  56. 

Rootes,  Sarah  Robinson,  56. 

Rootes,  Thomas  Reade,  56. 

Ross,  General,  captures  Wash- 
ington, 77. 

Rutherford,  Mr.,  80. 


Scotch  in  Ulster,  the,  18. 

Scotch     merchants     in     Colonial 

Virginia,  32. 
Scott,  John,  157. 
Seaton,   William  W.,   Sketch  of, 

357- 
Secession,     threatened     by     New 

England,  76. 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  control 

of  government  deposits  by,  229. 
Seminole  War,  the,  90. 
Senators,  United  States,  in  1830, 

88. 
Sevier,  Ambrose  H.,  274. 


Seward,  William  H.,  votes  to  re- 
ceive petition  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  324. 

Shakespeare,  Judith,  wife  of 
Thomas  Quiney,  25. 

Sheepbridge,  home  of  the  Gor- 
dons in  Ireland,  19. 

Sheepbridge  volunteers,  the,  in 
the  rebellion  of  1798,  23. 

Shepard,  Edward  M.,  on  the 
Sub-Treasury,  238. 

Shields,  James,  188. 

"Shy lock,  In  re,"  367. 

Slaves,  Jefferson's,  manumitted, 
151. 

Slave-holding  States,  the,  and 
emancipation,  316. 

Slavery,  the  question  of,  in  the 
Convention  of  1829-30,  162; 
on  its  domestic  side,  309;  Vir- 
ginia laws  in  regard  to,  315; 
in  the  Northwest  Territory, 
319;  petitions  to  abolish,  319; 
its  true  history  to  be  written, 
320;  and  State  Rights,  320; 
in  the  States  and  Territories 
in  1830;  Gordon's  letter  to  his 
son  on,  371-372;  Gordon's 
attitude  to,  391. 

Smith,  Gen.  George  W.,  burned 
in  the  Richmond  Theatre,  55. 

Soldier's,  English  view  of  Ameri- 
can, 84. 

South,  the  Newspaper,  on  Gor- 
don's career,  389. 

South  and  North,  the  widening 
breach  between,  326,  331. 

Southall,  Valentine  W.,  52,  146. 

Southampton  Insurrection,  the, 
309- 

Southwest  Mountains,  the,  71. 

Southern  Congress,  called  by  the 
Nashville  Convention,  340. 

Southern  Confederacy,  the  Nash- 
ville Convention  the  Cradle  of 
the,  347. 

Speakers  of  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates, 108. 

Specie  Clause,  the,  of  the  Sub- 
Treasury  Bill,  303. 

Specie  payments,  the  suspension 
of,  85. 

Spotswood,  Gov.  Alexander,  31, 
45,  68. 


409 


Springfield,  home  of  Col.  Reuben 
Lindsay,  62,  64. 

Spring  Hill  Academy,  49. 

Stanard,  Robert,  157. 

"Standard,  The  Alexandria," 
newspaper,  371. 

Stanbery-Houston  affair,  the,  352. 

State  Bank  depositories,  regula- 
tion of,  229. 

State — rights,  construction  of  the 
Constitution,  14;  at  the  Jef- 
ferson Birthday  dinner,  194; 
men  in  Virginia  308 ;  and 
slavery,  320. 

States,  Southern,  represented  in 
the  Nashville  Convention,  340. 

State  Sovereignty,  Gov.  William 
B.  Giles  on,  135,  136. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  in  the 
Slavery  Debate  of  1849,  330. 

Stevenson,  Andrew  71,  182  re- 
elected  Speaker,  210;  votes 
against  the  Sub-Treasury  Bill, 
279;  sketch  of,  182,  183. 

Stuart,  Archibald,  157. 

Sub-Treasury  the,  15  ;  scheme  of, 
devised  by  Gordon,  229 ;  gen- 
eral provision  of  bill  to  estab- 
lish, 230;  operation  of,  231; 
frame  of  Gordon's  bill  estab- 
lishing, 231;  Gordon's  speech 
in  support  of  his  bill  for,  232 ; 
bill  to  establish,  defeated,  236; 
Benton  on,  236;  scheme  of, 
adopted  by  Van  Buren,  236; 
Von  Hoist  on,  237 ;  bill  for, 
re-introduced  by  Gordon,  237 ; 
Gordon's  speech  on  re-intro- 
ducing, 241-253 ;  bill  estab- 
lishing, passes  the  House  in 
X837i  257;  again  defeated  in 
1838,  258;  finally  adopted  in 
1840,  258;  repealed  in  1841, 
259;  restored  in  1856,  259; 
arguments  used  against,  260; 
defense  of,  by  William  M. 
Gouge,  261 ;  denounced  by 
Whig  Ways  and  Means  Com- 
mittee, 262;  functions  and 
operations  of,  263 ;  specific 
clause  of  the,  bill,  303. 
Summers,  Lewis,  157,  160. 
Sumter,  General,  birthplace  of, 
72. 


Taliaferro,  John,  160. 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  209;  removes 
the  deposits,  210. 

Tarpley,  Collin  S.,  Calhoun's 
letter  to,  333. 

Tariff,  the,  .and  Nullification, 
190. 

Tariff  laws,  Virginia,  resolutions 
at  the,  129. 

Tariff  of  1832,  debate  on  the, 
207,  208. 

Taylor,  Col.  Frank,  diary  of,  38. 

Taylor,   John,   of   Carolina,   283. 

Taylor,  William  P.,  277. 

Taylor,  Zachary,  birthplace  of, 
72. 

Taxables  in  Virginia  in  1829-30, 
1 60. 

Taxation,  Federal  power  of, 
direct,  41. 

Tazewell,  Littleton  W.,  IS5» 
169,  182,  192;  pre-eminence 
of,  in  debate,  180;  sketch  of, 
186,  187;  speech  of,  in  Nor- 
folk, on  the  removal  of  the 
deposits,  228;  elected  gov- 
ernor, 229;  suggested  by 
Tyler  as  a  presidential  candi- 
date 293. 

Theatre,  the  burning  of  the 
Richmond,  55. 

Thompson,  Lucas  P.,  157;  sketch 
of,  158. 

Tobacco  trade,  the,  in  Colonial 
Virginia,  31. 

Toombs,  Mr.,  amendment  to  the 
New  Mexico  bill  offered  by, 

33i- 

Townes,   George,   160. 
Trinity     parish,     in     Albemarle 

County,  62. 
Trist,  Nicholas  P.,  birthplace  of, 

72;    sketch  of,  367. 
Troup,    Gov.    George    M.,    and 

the  Creek  Indians,  134.     . 
Tucker,  Beverly,  delegate  to  the 

Nashville  Convention,  334. 
Tucker,   George,  sketch  of,   391- 

392- 

Tucker,  John  Randolph,  74,  367. 
Turner,  Nat,  insurrection  headed 

by,    in    Southampton    County, 

309-315. 


410 


Two-thirds  Rule  in  Democratic 
Conventions,  origin  of  the, 

133. 

Tyler,  John,  155,  160,  182; 
sketch  of,  185,  186;  in  the 
Whig  party,  192;  letter  of, 
to  Gordon,  293 ;  suggests 
Tazewell  as  a  Presidential 
candidate,  293  ;  nominated  by 
Republican-Whig  alliance, 
299;  consults  his  friends  as 
to  resignation  from  the  Senate, 
304;  resigns  from  the  Sen- 
ate, 308. 

Tyler,  Robert,  account  of  at- 
tempt to  assassinate  President 
Jackson,  in  letter  of  John 
Tyler  to,  201. 


Ulster,  the  Scotch  in,  18. 

Urbanna,  residence  of  John  Gor- 
don, the  emigrant,  27,  30. 

United  States  Bank,  Virginia 
resolutions  on  the,  212. 

University   Loan    Bill,   the,    100. 

University  of  Virginia,  the,  15; 
distinguished  homes  near  the, 
71 ;  Jefferson's  scheme  to  es- 
tablish, 90;  correspondence  of 
Jefferson  and  Cabell  concern- 
ing-, 90;  bill  to  establish,  92; 
meeting  of  the  Commissioners 
to  locate,  93 ;  opposition  in 
the  House  of  Delegates  to,  95 ; 
act  establishing  passed,  96; 
appropriation  for,  102,  103 ; 
opening  of,  103. 

Upshur,  Abel  P.,  155,  192;  a 
leader  in  the  convention  of 
1829-30,  161;  compromise 
proposition  on  "the  basis"  in- 
troduced by,  164;  sketch  of, 
166. 


Valentine,  Dugald,  diary  of,  32. 

Van  Buren  calls  the  Sub-Treas- 
ury Bill  "A  Second  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,"  263 ; 
chosen  by  Jackson  as  his 
presidential  successor,  293 ; 
nominated  for  president,  297. 

Venable,  Richard  N.,  157. 

Virginia    Colonial    families,    31. 


Virginia  Resolutions,  affirmed  by 
the  Hartford  Convention,  89. 

Virginia  School  of  politics  on 
the  2ist  Congress,  188. 

Von  Hoist,  on  the  Sub-Treasury 
plan,  237;  on  Calhoun's  atti- 
tude to  the  Union,  324. 

Votes,  Gordon's,  in  Congress, 
195. 


Waddell,  Rev.  James,  25. 
Waddell,  James  Gordon,  teacher 

at  Spring  Hill,  49. 
Waddell,    Josephus,    member    of 

the     Virginia     Convention     of 

1867,  47. 

Wallace,  Jane,  21. 
Walker,  Betsy,  65. 
Walker,  Lucy,  65. 
Walker,  John  of  Belvoir,  68. 
Walker,    Gen.    Reuben    Lindsay, 

65. 

Walker,  Dr.  Thomas,  64. 
War  of  1812,  the,  76. 
Warronigh,  Camp,  troops  at,  79, 

80. 
Washington,      the      capitol      at, 

burned  by  the  British,  77. 
Watson,  Egbert  R.,  52. 
Washington,     George,     proposal 

to   remove   the  body   of,   284; 

Gordon's  speech  on,  287. 
Washington,  John  A.,  285. 
Washington,  Mrs.,  285. 
Watson,   Major  David,  79,   157. 
Webster,      Daniel,      155;      192; 

opposes  the  Sub-Treasury  Bill, 

257 ;      vote    received    by,    for 

president,  300. 
Webster-Hayne  debate,  the,  192; 

Gordon  on,  391. 

West  Virginia,  separation  of,  15. 
Whig  party,  the,  origin  of,   191. 
Whig   Ways    and    Means    Com- 
mittee   on    the    Sub-Treasury 

Bill,  262. 
Whig  Coalition  with  Democrats, 

the  destruction  of  the,  303. 
Whig    nomination    of    Hugh    L. 

White  for  President,  299. 
"Whig,   The   Richmond,"   news- 
paper, 358. 
Whigs,    Robert    W.    Barnwell's 

letter  to   Gordon   on  the,   300. 


White,  Hugh  L.,  188,  nominated 
for  President,  299. 

White,  Edward  D.,   188,  201. 

Wickham,  John,  156;  in  the 
Burr  trial,  50. 

Wilde,  Richard  Henry,  188,  278, 
288 ;  sketch  of,  267. 

Wilderness,   the,   36. 

Wilraot  Proviso,  the,  333;  de- 
feated, 347. 

Wilson,  Edgar  C.,  279. 

Wirt,  William,  26;  in  the  Burr 
trial,  50;  home  of,  72;  at 
Camp  Wassonigh  in  the  War 
of  1812,  81. 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  277;  comment 
of,  on  the  Republican-Whig 
ticket,  300;  and  John  Quincy 
Adams  in  the  Slavery  De- 
bates, 323 ;  on  compromise 
legislation,  328 ;  sketch  of, 


274-276;  in  the  Graves-Cilley 
duel,  351. 

Woods,   Micajah,   52. 

Wormeley  family,  the,   31. 

Wormeley,  Admiral  Ralph  Ran- 
dolph, 29. 

Wormeley,  John,  29. 

Wormeley,  Katherine  Prescott, 
29. 

Wormeley,  Madam  Elizabeth, 
30. 

Wormeley,  Ralph,  of  Rosegill, 
29. 

Wright,  Silas,  votes  for  the  Sub- 
Treasury  Bill,  257. 


Yancey,     Col.     Charles,    in     the 

War  of  1812,  78. 
Young     Republicans,     the,     and 

Mr.  Jefferson,  124. 


412 


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